Central Bank of Nigeria's Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) application is
an Oracle-based package meant to automate the Bank's business processes. From
day to day office activities like inventory, leave processing, payment orders to
periodic processes like Payroll, General Ledger. The Oracle E-business suite
application covers Human Resources (HR), Fixed Assets and Administration
processes while the Decision Support System covers senior management reporting
and analytical requirements.
The implementation is in phases; the year 2005 witnessed the roll-out of the
HR Self Service module which hitherto was manually done. This deployment was
significant as it ensured CBN staff adopt and experience do-it-yourself approach
to automated processes in their daily work. Some of the on-line self-services
are:
personal data maintenance
online appraisals
online training environment
loans processing which includes lump sum payment. This led to the
integration of Oracle payroll and the Temenos T24 banking application.
Other phases of Oracle ERP provide for the following:
Centre-led procurement: Where CBN previously used distributed and paper
based procurement, the new IT-based process ensures registration of the
vendors centrally and purchase orders are centrally consolidated. It also
ensures transparent audit trails of transactions and online business
intelligence reports
Account Payables & Asset Register: Online matching of invoices against
purchase orders, automatic printing of cheques which has increased
efficiency.. The system will also recognise, manage purchase and retirement of
assets.
General Ledger: This gives the Bank a centralised position of the balance
sheet on a daily basis.
More on this as implementation continues.
Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS)
The Central Bank of Nigeria is introducing a new application aimed at
enabling world class settlement system in the Nigerian financial system. The
system is based on the Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) application. The (RTGS)
system is an inter-bank payment system through which high value funds transfer
would be made between banks/participants on their own account or on behalf of
their customers. This will reduce incidences of overdrawn accounts of banks with
the CBN and the associated systemic risk in the industry. The system conforms to
the Bank for International Settlement (BIS) Core Principles for Systemically
Important Payment Systems.
The services
to be provided by the system include:
Funds Transfer including Third Party Transfer
Net Settlement from Nigeria Automated Clearing System (NACS) and non-NACS
clearing zones,
Debit Entries, payments and charges
The participants of the CBN RTGS are the Central Bank of Nigeria, commercial
banks, discount houses and the Nigeria Inter Bank Settlement System [NIBSS] for
net settlement position of banks.
Operational run on the system with eleven selected banks, one discount house
and NIBSS commenced in December 2005 and is on-going. The net settlement module
of the application commenced "live" run on 16th January, 2006 along with the T24
"live" run. Final "live" run and cutover will be by mid 2006 when the
outstanding 14 deposit money banks and 4 discount houses would have established
the technical infrastructure for connection to the CBN - this process is at an
advanced stage.
The Central Bank of Nigeria, early in year 2003, decided to implement TEMENOS
T24 to re-automate its core banking functions in line with the recommendations
of the Project EAGLES on IT. This application would replace the existing banking
application (BANKOS).
Features of TEMENOS T24
Flexibility - The application uses default parameters to drive the
functions of the system and the solutions can be tailored to meet the needs of
the bank.
Resilience - With TEMENOS T24, customer service is standard and secure.
Scalability and Portability-The application allows the bank to improve
application performance in a linear fashion.
Security - Security is not a burden with the application (how?).
Openness on all platforms (Database, Hardware and Operating System) - This
feature enables the Bank to select the best vendor or environment to suit her
needs within the context of cost, performance or any other factor.
Key benefits
of TEMENOS T24 to the Bank:
Core administration of procedures in CBN banking operations
Minimal risks associated with transactions, providing enhanced operational
benefit, and promoting standards across the organization
Tight integration with other IT initiatives, particularly the ORACLE
FINANCIALS and the RTGS
Significant reduction in errors and re-working of tasks due to in-built
checks
Comprehensive reporting functionality for Management Information System
(MIS)
Improved decision making through more timely, accurate and relevant
information
More efficient organisation through workflow and information flow.
TEMENOS Internet Banking
TEMENOS T24 offers an internet banking facility to the external customers.
This offers them the opportunity to carry out some transactions, make
enquiries on their accounts, and benefit from some other online services the
Bank will provide. Such services may include but not limited to:
Access to Account Balances
Printing of Statements
Management of Local Security instruments
Account Enquiries
Foreign Currency Transactions - FOREX bidding and notification of bid
results
The Enterprise Management and Security (EMS) Project provides the foundation
Information Technology (IT) infrastructure for the delivery of the re-engineered
processes that would assist the Bank actualize its vision.
The EMS Project provides solutions for the followings:
Enterprise Systems Management (ESM) (Using IBM Tivoli ESM - Availability
and Performance management, Software Distribution, Historical Analysis and
Trending for Proactive management of IT resources), Help Desk (Using Peregrine
Software) and Network management of Cisco Devices (CiscoWorks)
Delineation of network setup according to access requirements to the
various zones. This is to ensure secure access to the network resources based
on the access class of the users and the required information on "the need-to-
know basis" without security compromise to the enterprise data.
Configuration of e-mail services as an acceptable means of communication
within the enterprise and with the rest of the world
Deployment of web services on intranet, extranet and Internet zones as a
means of disseminating information to stakeholders in each of the zones
Deployment of Directory and other systems services to store the profiles
of network resources (users, applications, devices, et cetera) for appropriate
access as guided by policy definitions for such resources.
Configuration of secure infrastructure for electronic data exchange within
and outside the CBN enterprise in order to guarantee confidentiality,
integrity, availability and non-repudiation of such transactions.
The diagram below is a high level overview of the EMS project.
Corporate Performance Management
Corporate Performance Management (CPM) is a three-tiered Performance
Management System (PMS), which is intended to achieve a performance driven
organization by managing performance at three different levels- enterprise,
process and the individual.
The Oracle ERP implements the CPM in the following modules:
eBusiness Intelligence (EBI)
Enterprise Data Warehouse (EDW) for Macro Economic Analysis
Enterprise Planning & Budgeting (EPB)
Balanced Scorecard (BSC)
The Policies and Procedures module (PPM) is a custom development.
The CPM application will provide information in different forms and formats,
which will assist the Management in monitoring the performance of the Bank while
also providing a database for macro-economic analysis.
Status of Implementation of CPM
The following tasks have been accomplished on the CPM:
Definition of key performance indicators (KPI) for the various business
units
Development of Strategic Business Unit (SBU) plans
Development of Service level agreement (SLA) fo9r each SBU
Development of strategy maps
Building of Enterprise Scorecards
Initial configuration and customisation
Installation of production servers
Installation of the Policy and Procedures module
Data acquisition, configuration of the modules, user acceptance testing and
end user training are ongoing.
Evolution of Departments:At inception, the organisational structure of the CBN was understandably simple consisting of two departments, namely, the General Manager's and the Secretary's Departments, with the appropriate division of labour as then percieved. The General Manager's Department was responsible for all the Department banking, currency issues, debt management and other operational functions of the bank while the Secretary's Department handled the administrative and staff matters, carried out some research into the economic and financial conditions, and collected and analysed relevant statistics for policy formulation.