Amid challenging global economic conditions, the role of central banks has never been more critical to the effective management of economic headwinds and the development of optimal monetary policies. At Angola’s central bank, an outdated technology platform and the desire to take advantage of the latest innovations led to a digital transformation project that has delivered powerful new capabilities, greater agility, and a roadmap for future innovation.
“Our previous SAP system was the first of its kind in our country and represented a key milestone in Angola’s financial services sector,” says Armindo Fortes, IT Director at the National Bank of Angola. “However, the system was outdated and had high levels of customisation. We initiated a project with the support of our key partners at PwC and SAP to replace the 25 year-old legacy system and build new capabilities to support the bank’s critical work.”
The National Bank of Angola (BNA) is the central bank responsible for issuing and managing Angola’s national currency and overseeing the country’s banking system. In addition, the bank is responsible for the execution, monitoring and control of monetary, exchange and credit policies, payment system management, and ensuring the stability of the Angolan financial system.
The project was supported by implementation partner PwC, working in close collaboration with SAP as quality assurance partner during the conversion to ensure the correct decisions were taken throughout the implementation period.
According to Tito Tavares, Director at PwC Angola, the implementation team identified several high-impact opportunities for the digital transformation project. “These included updating the bank to SAP’s flagship S/4HANA platform to unlock new business processes as well as broader opportunities for digitalisation and automation. The Cash Management solution implemented in SAP was updated to match with the Stock Room Management new capabilities, which ensures the necessary reinforcement of treasury and liquidity for local financial institutions. As a further benefit, the project delivered extensive management reporting capabilities to guide decision-making and support in the role of BNA as supervisor.”
Other benefits include:
- Improved system-wide performance, scalability and functionality, providing greater agility to the organisation;
- Simplified analysis of management report from multiple sources, leading to time and cost savings as well as the delivery of more accurate business insights; and
- A solid platform for the deployment of new products and services to boost Angola’s financial system, including a new “Cash Centre building” which replaces BNA’s cash management operations in Luanda.
Fortes adds that new solutions are already being implemented as a result of the project, including SAP BW4/HANA and SAP Ariba. “The deployment of SAP S/4HANA has helped us significantly improve our business processes by eliminating data redundancies prevalent in our previous system. Different systems have also been integrated via SAP PO to enable more efficient data exchanges between SAP and non-SAP systems.”
The outcomes of the implementation project are evident throughout the business. With a modern and scalable system in place, BNA has set out an extensive roadmap of new innovations, including go-lives of SAP Ariba and SAP Employee Central planned in the near future. The adoption of SAP BW4/HANA has also allowed BNA to centralise its reporting capabilities for several departments, including accounting, market capital, cash management and statistical studies.
“By prioritising change management and conducting training in real-time throughout the project, we have also driven user adoption to ensure the rich functionality unlocked by this implementation reaps real business results,” says Fortes. “Thanks to the great support by our partners at SAP and PwC, our bank is well-positioned to deliver on its crucial mandate as a critical driver of Angola’s economy.”
Kholiwe Makhohliso, Managing Director at SAP Southern Africa, says banks are increasingly leveraging powerful technologies to improve their operations. “The National Bank of Angola’s deployment of the latest SAP innovations will enable it to drive lower costs and greater efficiency while providing key decision-makers with accurate real-time data. And with a roadmap of future innovations that will be rolled out over the coming years, the National Bank of Angola will continue to reap the benefits of digital transformation for years to come.”