GCNet pays GH¢10m as dividend to govt
Ghana Community Network Service Limited (GCNet) has paid GH¢10 million as final dividends to the government for the 2015 operational year. This payment brings the total dividend paid to the government to GH¢25 million for the period under review.
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The government, through the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), holds 20 per cent equity stake in GCNet, which started operations in 2004 and improved collections from customs duties at the country’s entry points.
The Executive Chairman, of GCNet Limited, Dr Nortey Omaboe, presented the final dividend to a Deputy Minister of Finance, Mrs Mona Helen Quartey, in Accra on Friday.
Dr Omaboe noted that GCNet had also paid GH¢5 million as dividend to the Ghana Shippers Authority and GCB Ghana in the 2015 operational year.
According to him, besides the direct dividend payments made, GCNet as a corporate entity, had over the years paid taxes as part of its statutory obligation to the government.
He opined that these financial contributions to the government revenue were a clear manifestation of the fact that return on the investment that the government made in GCNet had been rewarding.
It also showcases the fact that a well-structured Public Private Partnership (PPP) could be mutually beneficial for its partners. Indeed the same can be said for public owned enterprises that are efficiently managed under a transparent government structure.
He said it was not surprising, therefore, that the GCNet PPP had become a good model for PPPs that had been contrived in the country as well as PPPs that had been formed by some African countries for the implementation of the Single Window projects.
“The dividend was made within the context of a number of investments that GCNet is making to enhance the various systems that it has deployed to ensure that these systems continue to operate at the leading edge of technology,” he said.
Gratitude
Receiving the cheque, Mrs Quartey expressed the government’s gratitude to GCNet for the dividend paid to the state through GRA over the years.
“I will take this opportunity to urge the GCNet to continue to strive strong and be reliable as well as profitable as always to enhance the dividends paid to the government periodically,” she said.