GRANTEE SPOTLIGHT INTERVIEW: ENIO JACO, FOUNDER AND CEO OF CREATIVE BUSINESS SOLUTIONS (CBS)
Enio Jaco is the founder and CEO of Creative Business Solutions (CBS), a leading Albanian consulting firm with cross-border operations in Kosovo and North Macedonia. Under his leadership, CBS has managed and implemented over 22 large projects with multiple international donors over the last five years, with a combined $7.8 million contractual budget, providing technical assistance to 570 SMEs and generating $56 million in investments, $43 million in new revenue, and 2,500 new jobs. He is also the President of the American Chamber of Commerce in Albania, working closely with the business community, the Government and international partners to improve the business climate in Albania. He holds a Master’s Degree on Engineering Management from Cornell University and a B.S. from Polytechnic University of Tirana.
Established in 2016, Creative Business Solutions (CBS) is the leading business consulting and project implementation organization in Albania that provides consultancy and implement solutions for local entrepreneurs, organizations, donors, and financial institutions. To get started, can you tell us more about the origins of CBS?
CBS started in 2012 after I returned from a 2-year intensive period in Afghanistan. Despite the dangers of working in Afghanistan, I witnessed first-hand the importance of access to finance for agro-industry and SMEs in general. We had a vast amount of resources — USAID provided enormous technical and financial support — but the country was devastated and institutions were non-existent. So, we had to set up everything from scratch. It was a great learning experience.
The challenge of coming back to Albania was the opposite. The country was more economically developed than Afghanistan — a middle-income country as they call it (although I personally have a problem with that definition). But the challenge was that resources (especially donor support) were minimal because the country was considered on its path to EU, and therefore (at least in theory) should have been less dependent from aid.
Given these circumstances, we created CBS with the mission to be a truly professional consulting services firm, able to provide high value to both donor projects but also directly to SMEs through our unique offering of products and services. I’m happy to say, that when I look back at that mission, we have achieved those initial goals.
CBS serves an extensive network of SMEs throughout Albania including a home office in Tirana and a sub-branch in Fier, but also covering Kosovo and North Macedonia. What are some of the services and what type of assistance CBS provides to the member SMEs?
SMEs are a critical part of the economies of the Western Balkans. They represent 97% of all businesses, creating 80% of GDP and 83% of employment. But they receive only 35% of financing. So, the gap between what they offer to the economies and what they should receive (but they don’t) is staggering, it’s extreme. They are often ignored, resulting in lack of economic opportunities but also social inequalities. At CBS, we have made our mission to fill this gap.
The challenges of SMEs are complex, as you can imagine. But we focus on three groups of services. First, we make sure that SMEs have a solid, technically proven business plan to grow and invest. Secondly, we assist them to get capital to finance their investment plans. For each business, we identify different strategies on how they can get financing. With some, we work with the banking sector, for a standard loan — by improving the business conditions — or designing new financial products with the banking sector. But for some other SMEs, we look for alternative financing instruments, such as investment grants, supported by donors or the government. We have also developed an electronic system (LORES) that connects and matches SME needs with those of the largest financial institutions in the market. This is one of our core services now.
Thirdly, we help SMEs develop quality services and products for their own customers, so they generate more profits and reach new markets. One of these services is Quality Management — where we help businesses reach important global standards such as Global GAP, Organic, ISO Standards and BRC. These standards help businesses grow their export or trade connections with international markets. This third area is the subject of our work with EDGE.
As one of the USAID EDGE grantees, together with your partners from Albania and Kosovo, you are implementing the “Improve quality and access to EU markets for producers and exporters from Albania and Kosovo” project which aims to support producers, consolidators, and exporters of fresh fruits and vegetables from Albania and Kosovo to improve their competitiveness and have better access to regional and EU markets. What activities have you implemented so far and what is planned for the upcoming period?
The project team is working closely with several SMEs agro producers and traders in Albania and Kosovo to help them obtain internationally recognized food safety certifications. CBS is providing technical assistance to these SMEs beneficiaries, and on-the-job trainings to their employees as well as to their farmers’ network.
The project has assisted one exporter to obtain the BRC certificate. That’s a big deal because it’s the first time this has happened in Albania. The BRC certificate will help the exporter reach the UK and some high-end western European markets. The project is also supporting one exporter with Global GAP group certification with a network of 14 producers, as well as one Global GAP at the production level in Kosovo and another in Albania. The project has trained more than 70 farmers and employees of the exporting SMEs in areas of good agriculture practices, workers health, hygiene, harvest and post-harvest practices, etc. Some of the assisted SMEs are at advanced discussion with potential new buyers in European Union thanks to the project interventions.
But the project is also assisting several SMEs to obtain ISO 22000, HACCP and Organic certifications. These new standards are increasing the SMEs chances of successful trades. Another interesting part of the project is that for the first time some SMEs are being supported with development of digital marketing packages. The project is delivering assistance modules on importance of ICT and digital tools to help SMEs improve their online visibility and presence and identify new markets.
With USAID support, CBS launched the first e-commerce platform in Albania that connects sellers and buyers in the agricultural industry through a virtual marketplace. Briefly, how can Albanian SMEs and EDGE beneficiaries benefit from what Agrotrade has to offer?
Agrotrade is a virtual marketplace that improves the exporters of fresh fruits and vegetables, and connects with buyers. But the platform works in coordination with a team of consultants, and supports the beneficiaries by making them export-ready. The services that Agrotrade offer to SMEs start with identification of the most feasible market(s) to target, followed by a dedicated export readiness business plan and strategy, identification of potential buyers, strategies to approach them and support on deal negotiation and necessary logistics accordingly.
CBS also partnered with USAID to implement the five-year SmartCapital Project aiming to boost economic growth by facilitating financing, sustainable business investments, and trade in vital sectors of Albanian economy including agriculture, tourism, and environment. Can you highlight some of the key accomplishments from the implementation of SmartCapital Project?
SmartCapital was a 5-year project with remarkable results. As the name of the project suggests, SmartCapital aimed to generate capital for Entrepreneurs in ways that until then were considered out-of-the-box solutions. The project provided direct technical assistance to over 1,000 businesses, generating $59 million in investment and financing and 1,500 new jobs. This level of impact was unheard of in Agriculture in Albania at the time — from a donor project. SmartCapital also introduced a new, innovative way of doing business with platforms such as Agroweb and LORES. Agroweb alone was so successful that it attracted an audience of over 500,000 unique visitors and has become fully sustainable. All in all, the project became well known among the farmers, development community and bankers’ communities and as a catalyzer for future growth and ideas.
The European Union (EU) has extended the validity of the duty-free regime for the import of fruits and vegetables from the countries of the Western Balkans until the end of 2025. In your view, how can SMEs in the region capitalize on this concession?
It’s a huge benefit — right on our doorsteps. But in order to take advantage from the opening of EU markets, the producers and traders of fruits and vegetables must invest in increasing their quality standards. Internationally recognized certifications are becoming a norm, to enter EU markets.
SMEs in Western Balkans should also invest in modern technologies in order to increase their efficiency and reduce production costs. Let’s face it: they should expect serious competition from countries like Spain, Italy, Turkey, and Morocco and price/quality ratio must maintain competitive to succeed. SMEs in the fruit and vegetable sector should also invest in improving the service level but also improve their marketing and business development skills to continuously reach new markets. With those in mind, I expect a bright future for Western Balkans producers of fruit and vegetables — with increasing access and eventually fully integrated into EU markets.
As an implementing partner, Creative Business Solutions (CBS) is involved in two EDGE buy-ins: Promoting Regional Integration through Networking and Cooperation (PRINC) and Albania Support for Private Sector (SPS). The goal of PRINC is to support regional integration of Albania, Serbia and North Macedonia by developing platforms for collaboration to improve the legal and regulatory business environment in line with EU requirements, while SPS supports private sector-led growth in Albania, by helping the private sector to increase access to finance and improve the competitiveness of companies in the some of the most deprived neglected economic sectors such as agriculture.
