Telco firm Safaricom has announced it will reserve five per cent of its employment slots for persons living with disability.
Speaking during the Forum for Global Disability which the company hosted, Chief Human Resource Officer Paul Kasimu said the company has been progressively working to beat the percentage target.
“Safaricom has increased its percentage of employees who are persons with disability from 1.7% to 2.1% and we aim to reach 5% in the next two to three years,” he said.
Kasimu said the organisation would like as many people as possible to be involved in the forum so that persons with disability live a decent life and none is left behind.
Stakeholders from the private sector, Disability People Organisations and government agencies resolved to strengthen their commitment to support the inclusion of persons with disability.
The inclusion will be done through various interventions right from early childhood.
Assistive devices and economic empowerment for persons with disabilities were a cross-cutting theme, of the five thematic areas agreed on in the forum.
The forum deliberated on promoting inclusion of persons with disability through meaningful employment and financial inclusion opportunities.
On the same note the government was mentioned as a key stakeholder in availing quality and affordable assistive technologies.
Among other key dependencies discussed were availability of reliable data on disability.
The government was urged to leverage on the upcoming National census to collect accurate data that is critical to making informed decisions that will facilitate action planning towards disability inclusion.
The forum aims to rally stakeholders to bring to life their Global Disability Summit commitments in line with the Disability Charter for Change( DFID ).
DFID committed to play a catalytic role and there will be a governance structure to create synergies which will keep the members truly engaged holding them accountable to this worthy course.
