Ghana Oil Company (GOIL) has declared dividend to shareholders for the 2020 financial year, despite recording a decline in profit as a result of the covid 19 pandemic.

The Board Chairman, Kwamena Bartels, has reiterated the company’s commitment to continue to provide valuable products and services to its stakeholders, and also implement programmes to maintain its position as the leading oil marketing company in the country.

Speaking at the Annual General Meeting of the company, he said GOIL witnessed a difficult year in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, which led to massive economic downturn.

Despite the challenges, he noted that the company remained committed to its shareholders and will therefore not reduce dividends.

“The company’s profit after tax was ¢90.03 million, down by 14.5%, compared to the previous year. Consequently, earnings per share also fell by 14.5%. Despite the fall, the board has decided to pay a dividend by the same amount as that of last year namely, ¢0.045 per share”, he said.

Mr Bartels said GOIL had put in place initiatives especially in the area of technology to boost its operations.

He said the company had leveraged technology to improve on its cash collection methods through the use of cashless system by its customers to purchase items at its service stations and other outlets.

“The company leveraged Information Technology to get our bank accounts credited the following day after cash collections from our stations. The intervention has also helped to reduce stock outs at the stations because our retail dealers are directly credited with the amounts collected at the stations, right on the following day”, he said

With regard to the electronic transactions, he said GOIL had integrated all its services on Gh-link, a national payment platform.

“This means that any Gh-link electronic cardholder can use his/her card to buy fuel at all of our 400 service stations throughout the country”, he said

GOIL, he noted, had also developed a mobile phone application that would allow customers to use QR codes for payment.

“Whilst reducing physical cash handling, this further mitigates the risk of transmitting any virus during transactions”’ he explained.

GOIL, he stated understands the importance of its customers to its success and therefore it has implemented a system to adequately get feedback from them.

“GOIL has a well-trained team that engages customers on various social media platforms. We work for the customers and therefore their suggestions and complaints become an important source of knowledge in improving services provided at our retail stations” he said.