Kwamena Bartels, Board Chairman of Ghana Oil Company Limited (GOIL)
Mr Kwamena Bartels, Board Chairman of Ghana Oil Company Limited (GOIL) has admonished shareholders and potential investors to acquire more shares in GOIL as the projections on return on investments are positive.
“As Chairman of this Company I am proud to say that GOIL is truly Ghanaian as the saying goes. It is really exciting that we continue to run such a prosperous company that competes well with multinationals in the country.
“It is important to reemphasize that adding on to shareholder-value has always been the overriding factor in all strategic decisions of the Board,” Mr Bartels stated in a document to be presented at GOIL’s 50th Annual General Meeting of the Shareholders and obtained by the Ghana News Agency in Accra on Thursday.
The GOIL 2018 AGM is slated for Thursday May 23, at the Auditorium of the College of Physicians and Surgeons. It is expected that GHS16,458,251.00 dividend would be proposed for the year ended December 31, 2018; a huge increment from 2017 dividend of GHS10,972,168.
Mr Bartels said “GOIL will continue to pursue strategies to increase shareholders-value through the acquisition of more service stations as well as organic growth and sales promotions to increase volume of sales”.
Giving account of the operations of GOIL over the past year, Mr Bartels explained that GOIL took advantage of operating efficiently using technology, innovation and change in behaviour to win the custom of several organizations as a result of improvement in the operations of both electronic card and coupon payment system.
“Moreover, GOIL was very persistent in seeking to change the attitudes of station attendants through continuous training in customer service, health and safety,” he said.
Mr Bartels said the strategy adopted to form GOIL subsidiary GOENERGY, a Bulk Distribution Company has consistently yielded better financial results for the Company.
“As expected, GOENERGY continues to be the market leader in sales to the oil marketing companies, and has been the pillar behind GOIL’s ability to have competitive pricing and access to products.
“I am also happy to observe that GOIL has been the stabilizing factor against arbitrary changes in the price of fuel in the country, which could have resulted from unstable world market price of fuel and foreign exchange fluctuations during the year 2018,” the GOIL Board Chairman noted.
He said over the last five years the Company’s profit after tax has grown by 20 per cent per year on average.
In 2018, GOIL made a consolidated profit after tax of GHS81.9 million, up by 26 per cent against 2017; the assets of GOIL as a group have grown by 30 per cent, from GHS1.036 billion to GHS1.346 billion.
Mr Bartels said GOIL was committed to achieving its goal of “Zero harm” to staff, customers and communities in which it operate, stressing that measures like Hazard Identification, Risk Assessment, Workplace audits and inspections were taken to ensure the full realization of its goal on safety.
“Our commitment to “Zero Harm” drove us to engage the best safety consultants in the industry, home and abroad, to conduct Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment training for our staff to ensure that hazards are reduced or eliminated.
“Our well trained and safety conscious staff also conducted successful audits that contributed to the accomplishment of our goal of “Zero Harm,” he said.
On the issue of health, Mr Bartels said the company believes that ensuring healthy workforce and promoting wellbeing was crucial to building a prosperous GOIL.
In view of this, several measures were taken to ensure a healthy workforce through health surveillance, health walk/talk and the provision of health Insurance for our staff.
He said the consistent use of the in-built Fuel Analyzer Laboratory Van has maintained customer confidence in quality of GOIL fuels.
