Projects Library

Project Summary:

The overall objective of this project was to enhance the economic growth and increase job creation in the country by strengthening micro and small enterprises and maximizing their contribution to the national economy. The project was designed to provide tailored solutions to micro and small enterprises from all industries, prospective start-ups and ambitious young entrepreneurs that best addresses their needs and enhances the probability of success through combination of training, business development support and equity financing. The Project was implemented in all 8 regions in Macedonia.

Description of the delivered services by CEED:

As a lead implementer, CEED Macedonia was responsible for overall coordination of program activities, as well as financial management, procurement, monitoring and evaluation processes. CEED Macedonia was directly responsible for implementation of two out of three project components:

Component 1: Implementation of entrepreneurial training programs:

• Adaptation and development of entrepreneurial programs content based on the needs of microenterprises in the regions where the project was beeing implemented
• Recruitment of mentors, guest speakers and participants in the entrepreneurial programs in 8 selected regions
• Implementation of entrepreneurial programs and organization of networking and B2B events

Component 2: Business Support Services

• Designing business support services and criteria for their usage by project beneficiaries
• Managing the selection of project beneficiaries to use business support services and providing recommendations for most suitable in-company interventions
• Coordination of selection and engagement of business support service providers
• Proving support for accessing foreign markets by organizing Market Entry and B2B Events
• Providing Business Angels Co-Funding for prospective start-ups and innovative business ideas
• Providing support for start-ups and helping youth to develop entrepreneurial skills through the accelerator CEED HUB Skopje

As a lead implementer, CEED Macedonia was responsible for coordination of project activities within Component 3: Equity Financing, which was implemented by the local subcontractor SPMG Capital Skopje.

Project results and impact achieved:

• Enrolled 523 participants in the entrepreneurial training programs
• Over 300 participants received some form of business support services
• Introduced new practices in 123 participants (new process, technology, business procedure, system, standard etc.)
• Created 253 new jobs in participating companies in the period 2011 – 2015 (for example, the companies that joined the first generation of the project in 2011/2012 have 74% increase in the number of jobs in 2015 compared to 2011 when they entered the project)
• Increase in the cumulative income of participating companies of approximately 15 million USD in the period 2011- 2015
• Increase in the cumulative profit of participating companies of approximately 680,000 USD in the period 2011 – 2015

Opened and equipped HUB Skopje; supported 27 business ideas through organized 3 acceleration programs.