Kofi Ahovi

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 pe

Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr. Ernest Addison, has provided a detail response to the reason the Central Bank will not be appearing before a Parliamentary Committee to answer a petition by some shareholders of defunct UT Bank and Unibank. According to him, one of the major reasons is to allow the legal proceedings to flow smoothly, since some of the shareholders have already slowed the process with many counter suits. Speaking at the Ghana Chamber of Commerce and Industries Business Forum,  Dr. Addison said “running to parliament to seek redress for the revocation of an institution’s licence is not one of the processes laid down under the law for those who feel aggrieved by a licence revocation by the Bank of Ghana.  There are already a number of actions filed in court and at arbitration by the same persons who run to parliament for cover up and the Bank of Ghana simple response to parliament is respectfully to allow the pending legal processes to run their course.” Indeed sometimes

The Bank of Ghana has directed banks and Specialized Deposit-Taking institutions to desist from charging some fees and charges, as well engaging in some practices it describes as unfair to the banking populace. The fees and charges, and practices identified by the central bank as unfair include, Credit Insurance Premium Overcharges, Maintenance Fees on Savings Account, Over the Counter (OTC) Withdrawal Charges as well as the requirement by some banks for borrowers to make them part owners in some assets they present for use as collateral for loans. OnCredit Insurance Premium Overcharges ,  the Central Bank says while it acknowledges the importance of holding credit insurance against eventualities such as death, permanent disability, and termination of employment, as a loss mitigating norm in credit management, a number of banks and SDIs take advantage of this, to overprice the premiums charged to customers, resulting in the increased cost of borrowing. It said going forward, banks and