CBI presents 2022 results in Annual Report

The CBI Annual Report highlights our results for 2022. Last year, we supported 449 Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) in various sectors via 42 projects. We helped these companies become more sustainable and provide more job opportunities. The digital and local approaches we used complemented each other well.

Sustainable products and services

We focus on strengthening the economic, social and environmental sustainability of SMEs that export value-added products and services to European and regional markets. In 2022, the companies we supported achieved a total export value of 513 million euros. Sustainable products and services accounted for more than one-third of this export value.

Tourism exports are returning to their pre-COVID-19 pandemic level, and SMEs are improving their exports. Still, the war in Ukraine, the energy crisis and increasing inflation have affected businesses. In our Annual Report, you can read about how CBI helped cocoa farmers in Sierra Leone improve their production and export.

More job opportunities

Within our projects, we try to support and increase job opportunities, especially for women and youth. In 2022, the companies we supported provided 26,587 FTE jobs. Women were employed in exactly half of the total FTEs. Also, more than a quarter of the SMEs were led by women entrepreneurs.

Market information

In 2022, we shared much-needed market information with local SMEs. We published 231 market information studies on the CBI website, reaching 1.7 million page views. 86% of readers stated that the market information studies were useful for their businesses. The new studies focused on social certificates, the impact of the war in Ukraine, sustainable export, niche markets, and more.

View the highlights of our 2022 results.