Adnan Adams Mohammed
Two service providing companies have presented separate cheques worth about GHC37 million to the government as dividends for the 2018 financial year.
The companies are GCB Bank and Ghana Community Network Services Limited (GCNet). GCB presented a dividend of GHS16.9 million and GCNet presented a dividend of GH¢20 million to the government for the 2018 Fiscal Year.
The cheques were presented to Mr Ken Ofori-Atta, Minister of Finance by the Managing Directors of GCB Bank and GCNet at separate short ceremonies held at the Ministry of Finance last week.
“I think the years ahead are going to demand even stronger interventions to promote the type of decentralised growth that we need or real growth to occur.” The Finance Minister charged the service provider at the country’s ports (GCNet) to do more to increase revenue generation stressing that a lot of Ghanaians and businesses do not honour their tax obligations.
Ken Ofori-Atta vowed to ensure that the country’s revenues generated internally are used prudently to develop the economy.
His assurance comes at a time when government is struggling to meet its revenue target resulting in calls for some expenditure cut.
Mr Ofori-Atta added, “Revenue to GDP is about 12.6% and we need to move to 19% so the interventions are going to be very crucial and to the way forward in terms of preventing leakages.”
The Minister said his outfit looks forward to engaging local tax agency, Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) to be more efficient than it has been in the past.
According to him, the charges made to the top hierarchy of GRA will inure to the benefit of the economy in terms of revenue mobilisation.
The Finance Minister lauded GCNet for its immense contribution to trade facilitation and revenue generation at the ports.
Mr Ofori-Atta also commended GCB Bank for the stellar performance and for living up to expectations.
He said GCB Bank plays a key role in national development and gave assurance that the government would continue to partner the Bank and leverage on GCB’s extensive branch network in the drive towards financial inclusion.
Mr. Sowah stated that GCB Bank will continue to deliver on its core mandate of delivering superior financial solutions and continue to offer support to businesses in all sectors of the economy to help drive economic growth.
