case study: ofid


IBS Journal Supplement September 2015


Helping the hand that feeds


The OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID) has been undergoing a major digital transformation in the last few years to support its complex project and loan management operations and the associated payments. Working with SAP and Fundtech, plus a range of services partners, a lot has been achieved.


The OPEC Fund for International Develop- ment (OFID) is a major lender and, in the last few years, has been building an infra- structure to improve its automation and streamlining its core business processes. At its heart are SAP’s ERP, Treasury and Loan Management systems, plus Fundtech’s Swift service bureau. While some of the components are still under implementa- tion, much has been achieved. The initial vision was laid down in 2005


to have a fully integrated enterprise plat- form, inspired by a major organisational restructuring within OFID. By the end of 2015, when both SAP’s treasury and lend- ing systems are due to be fully live, that vision should have been realised, says OFID’s SAP project manager, Jacobs Edo. OFID’s remit is to provide development assistance and it has been doing so since


1976 when it was established by the mem- ber states of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). Its focus is on projects that relate to basic needs such as food, energy, clean water and sanitation, healthcare and education. While the volume of loans is not high


– typically 20 to 25 per quarter – they are high value (mostly in the range of $20-50 million) and complex. OFID also provides grants, which are not repayable. The com- plexity is reflected in the fact that OFID deals with payments in 135 countries and 122 currencies, including some that are not easily tradable or convertible. OFID was previously relying on an


in-house developed system augmented by Microsoft Excel and Access. That system was mainly a database for monitoring pro- jects, says Edo. ‘We then had the manage-


ment’s strategic goal of transforming the operation to a single, integrated enter- prise platform.’ This was to span accounting (there were previously only spreadsheets), loans management and treasury. As the latter piece was defined, so it also became clear that OFID needed to integrate a bank agonistic payment system as well. ‘More or less our job is very close to that


of a bank, we give loans to the public and private sector players,’ says Edo. As it start- ed to conceptualise its future IT platform, it looked at what other similar types of insti- tutions were doing, such as the World Bank and African Development Bank. ‘Most were ahead of us,’ he recalls. There is a United Nations ERP group, with OFID now a mem- ber, and this provided useful lessons and input. A full selection process was carried out which led to the original choice of SAP.


‘We had the management’s strategic goal of transforming the operation to a single,


integrated enterprise platform.’ Jacobs Edo, OFID


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© IBS Intelligence 2015


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