AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK

Office of Director and Controller

Abidjan, Cote D’Ivoire

REQUEST FOR EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST (REOI)

(SENIOR SAP CONSULTANT)

POST IMPLEMENTATION REVIEW OF FI CONFIGURATION IN SAP 4/HANA

Title of the Assignment : Senior SAP Consultant

Place of assignment : Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire

Duration of the assignment : Six (6) months from January 2020 (renewable)

Remuneration : Fixed monthly lump sum

Tentative Date of commencement : 1 January 2020

Deadline for receipt of application : 13 December 2019

Applications by email to be submitted to : o.onyango@afdb.org and h.benothman@afdb.org

Any questions and requests for clarifications may be sent to : o.onyango@afdb.org and h.benothman@afdb.org

TERMS OF REFERENCE

About the Bank :

Established in 1964, the African Development Bank (AfDB) is the premier pan-African development institution supporting the economic growth and social progress of Africa. The AfDB pursues its mandate of aiding the socio-economic development of Africa by mobilizing resources within and outside of Africa for the purposes of financing development projects and programs, in the continent, including technical assistance and knowledge –based services. The AfDB has a total of 80 member countries, comprising 54 African and 26 non-African countries.

About the Hiring Department :

The Financial Control Department (FIFC) is responsible for all controllership functions of the African Development Bank Group including, financial reporting, loan administration, disbursements and management of administrative expenses. As a critical element of the governance structure of the ADB Group, FIFC maintains the primary responsibility for analyzing, recording, and reporting the financial consequences of all decisions and transactions of the ADB Group and the over 65 Trust Funds managed by the Bank on behalf of a wide range of donors.

About the Role :

Following the conversion of the Bank Group’s primary financial and data management system from SAP ECC6 to the SAP S4/ Hana platform [This has included the implementation of various SAP Modules including SAP FI Module for financial accounting], the FIFC Department is seeking the services of an experienced SAP FI consultant to undertake a review of the configuration of FI Module in SAP S4/Hana. The overall aim is to enhance FIFC’s controllership and reporting processes by optimizing the FI functionality through recommending enhancements and where necessary, designing and building reporting templates.

The desired consultant will, as part of the assignment, work primarily with the four different Divisions of FIFC to understand their business, accounting, financial reporting and related processes and recommend solutions. One of the key areas of focus will be to support the accurate and timely production of relevant management accounting reports to the Board and Senior Management of the Bank Group.

The ideal experience profile of the consultant would be first and foremost a subject matter expert on SAP with a track record in implementation of similar projects in other banking institutions. The consultant will seek to leverage the full functionality of the SAP system to help the FIFC department achieve efficiency gains as well as simplify accounting and reporting processes.

The main in-house ICT systems used by the Bank are SAP ERP, Summit, Credit Manager and NumeriX. The systems are variously used for loan accounting, fair valuation of structured trades and financial instruments, bank deals and financial reporting.

Financial Reporting Framework and Multi-currencies Environment :

The Bank’s individual financial statements are prepared in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) promulgated by the International Accounting Standards Board. The financial statements are prepared under the historical cost convention except for certain financial assets and financial liabilities that are carried at fair value.

The Bank operates in a multi-currencies environment as it conducts its operations in the currencies of its member countries but presents its financial statements in the Unit of Account (UA). The value of the Unit of Account is equivalent to one Special Drawing Right (SDR) of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) or any unit adopted for the same purpose by the IMF.

Income and expenses are translated to UA at the rates prevailing on the date of the transaction. Monetary assets and liabilities are translated into UA at rates prevailing at the balance sheet date. Non-monetary assets and liabilities are translated into UA at historical rates. Translation differences are included in the determination of net income. Capital subscriptions are recorded in UA at the rates prevailing at the time of receipt. The translation differences relating to payments of capital subscriptions is reported in the financial statements as the Cumulative Exchange Adjustment on Subscriptions (CEAS). This is composed of the difference between the UA amount at the predetermined rate and the UA amount using the rate at the time of receipt. When currencies are converted into other currencies, the resulting gains or losses are included in the determination of net income.

Key Responsibilities and Duties :

Under the general supervision of the Director and Controller, the duties and responsibilities of the consultant will include the following :

• Document existing FI Module configuration in its entirety ;
• Undertake a complete and comprehensive review of the functionalities of the FI Module ;
• Undertake complete and comprehensive review of the accounting and reporting processes of the Bank ;
• Facilitate requirements gathering workshops/discussions and assess, challenge, and document the business requirements ;
• Following review and documentation of the Bank’s existing configuration and processes, the consultant is expected to recommend necessary changes and improvements in the FI configuration to ensure compliance with industry best practices ;
• Document proposed configuration changes of the SAP FI modules in IMG based on business requirements – Configuration of standard Module processes in SAP (SPRO/IMG) ;
• Develop functional specifications for customizations and enhancements which include reports, data processing, load programs, and adjustment tools ;
• Develop test strategies, test plans and test scripts ;
• Perform functional testing execution after development completion ;
• Review financial reporting requirements and assist in implementing relevant solutions leveraging the functionality of the SAP S/4 Hana platform ;
• Identify opportunities for improvement, articulate business requirements into FI functional requirements for functional design, document and work closely with the Technology team (including the software vendor) in providing end to end solutions that ensure users’ needs are optimally met ;
• Identify Gaps in standard processes and work with Technical Consultant (ABAP) to implement the same as customization in SAP FI ;
• Document and provide application support and training of end users with regards to the FI process and systems changes – Training /Knowledge Transfer (to Business Team) ;
• Participate in User Acceptance Testing and facilitate user testing, documenting test results clearly

Requirements :

The Senior SAP Consultant, who must be a subject matter expert in SAP should be a methodical, well organized strategic thinker, with good qualitative and analytical skills, with an excellent understanding of SAP and ideally who will engage with FIFC division manager, understand their business and process flows and recommend solutions leveraging the SAP infrastructure. The Consultant should also have solid technical experience in SAP FI and CO modules including General Ledger (GL), Accounts Payable (AP), Accounts Receivable (AR), Cost and Profit Center Accounting (CPA) and Internal Orders.

Duration of the Assignment :

The duration of the assignment will initially be for 6 months and renewable subject to satisfactory performance.

Eligibility :

The criteria for the recruitment shall include :

• At least a Master’s degree in IT, Accounting, Finance, Economics or Business or its equivalent in any other relevant field ;
• Extensive experience configuring and customizing SAP modules including, FI module (specifically in S4/Hana environment) ;
• Business knowledge in accounting, finance and controlling ;
• Knowledge of standard financial and lending products and related accounting and reporting processes ;
• Knowledge of SAP FI tools including Web Intelligence, and Lumira ;
• Experience in preparing Business Blueprint, Process Flows, Functional Specifications and Unit Test Scripts ;
• Experience with post-implementation review of SAP software implementation ;
• Experience in business, systems analysis and testing to identify system configuration issues and provide solutions or quality assurance is a plus for the position ;
• Full end-to-end understanding of SAP implementations, development, and quality and production environments in SAP ;
• Functional Knowledge of SAP modules including; Controlling, Loan Management (CML), Project Systems (PS) and Human Capital Management and related tables will be an advantage ;
• ABAP or SAP UI5 Certification is an advantage ;
• Professional experience working with financial institutions is desirable ;
• Fluency in one of the two official languages of the Bank (French and English) preferably with a working knowledge of the other language ;
• Strong interpersonal, written and oral communication skills and ability to communicate and articulate technical solutions and requirements to end users and management at different levels of organization hierarchy ;
• Be a national of one of the member countries of the Bank.

Remuneration :

The remuneration will be in line with the Bank’s guidelines on remuneration of consultants. The consultants shall be paid a total monthly lump sum, comprising fee, subsistence and other incidentals, for the duration of the assignment and commensurate with the number of years of work experience. The Bank will cover economy class travel costs for the consultant who needs to travel to take up duty, and if relevant, any field mission costs as per its Travel Policy. Leave will also be granted in line with the Bank’s leave policy for short-term consultants. The consultant will be responsible for obtaining personal health insurance at their own cost.

Selection :

A shortlist of individual consultants will be established at the end of the request for expressions of interest. The consultants on the shortlist will be judged on the following criteria based on their customized, responsive CV/resume, which must be adapted to demonstrate how the candidate meets the requirements of this REOI.

1. General qualifications and suitability for the assignment (30%) ;
2. Experience related to the assignment including post IT implementation reviews (40%) ;
3. Knowledge of Financial Reporting (10%) ;
4. Experience with Financial and lending Products (10%) ;
5. Experience with SAP FI and related IT systems (10%).

The eligibility criteria, the establishment of a short list and the selection procedure shall conform with the Bank’s procedures for the acquisition of consulting services funded by the Administrative or Capital expenditure.

Please, note that interest expressed by a Consultant does not imply any obligation on the part of the Bank to include him/her in the shortlist.