eyata works to provide decent livelihoods, reduce inequality, and end extreme poverty in rural Ghana through entrepreneurship. Our graduation programme provides groups of unemployed women with training, access to finance and business mentoring with the aim of helping them establish and run their own formalised and sustainable vocational enterprises.

 

Our Graduation Programme

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    Recruitment

    We open call for application and select unemployed women who live under $1.90 a day, have little or no formal education, have no prior business experience, and are unable to provide for their family’s basic needs. We do the selection based on information provided in application and background checks

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    Training

    Selected trainees enroll in 1 of our 6 vocational skills courses. We run training in vocational skills for up-to 14 months and business management and entrepreneurship for 2 months. We start stimulating our trainees to conceptualise and develop their enterprise ideas. Our competence based curriculum is designed for trainees who have little or no formal education using a kinaesthetic learning style. Our approach to training is competency-based and trainee-centered where we place emphasis on trainees mastering the specific competencies needed to start and run their own enterprises. We run up-to sixteen months vocational courses in the following:

    • Fashion design and tailoring; with millinery and jewellery making,
    • Batik tye and dye; with beddings makings
    • Soap and detergent making; with antiseptic and pomade making
    • Furniture making; with interior decoration
    • Masonry; with draftsmanship
    • Floor tiling; with plumbing.
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    Financial Literacy and Inclusion

    Trainees after completing the vocational and business management skills training are offered financial literacy training and linked to our partner financial service provider to access a wide range of financial services including savings account, microloans, pensions and insurance products. Trainees are put into self-selected groups of three to encourage group savings and borrowing from our partner financial service provider. These groups also serve as trainee’s support system into the long term.

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    Enterprise Development

    At this stage, we help our trainees to register their enterprises with the appropriate local government authority. Our business mentors continue to engage with trainees after they graduate from our institution. We offer up-to one year customized one-on-one business training and advisory services, access to financing and market linkage to rural enterprises being run by our past trainees or other women within the age bracket of 18 – 35 years. Through this programme, entrepreneurs access our training and consulting expertise on product development, value-chain development, sales and marketing, financial management, operation management, business strategy, human resources management, and business law. The aim is to accelerate the growth of their enterprises.

Sustainable Development Goals in Action

SDG 1: No poverty
SDG 1: No poverty

As of 2015, about 736 million people still lived on less than US$1.90 a day; many lack food, clean drinking water and sanitation. Women are more likely to be poor than men because they have less paid work, education, and own less property

 

SDG8: Decent work and economic growth
SDG8: Decent work and economic growth

As the global economy continues to recover we are seeing slower growth, widening inequalities, and not enough jobs to keep up with a growing labour force. According to the International Labour Organization, more than 204 million people were unemployed in 2015.

SDG 10: Reduce inequality
SDG 10: Reduce inequality

Income inequality is on the rise—the richest 10 percent have up to 40 percent of global income whereas the poorest 10 percent earn only between 2 to 7 percent. If we take into account population growth inequality in developing countries, inequality has increased by 11 percent.