As part of efforts of supporting government in revenue mobilization, the Ghana Community Network (GCNet), has paid an amount of GHc 20 million as dividend for 2018 financial year.
The amount represents returns on Ghana Revenue Authority’s (GRA) 20 percent equity shareholding in the company.
The dividend payment for 2018 represent 67 percent increase over the 2016 dividend payment of GHc 12 million.
Presenting the cheque to the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, the Deputy General Manager, Emmanuel Darko said the presentation was in fulfilment of the company’s obligation to pay dividends to its shareholders.
He said the company did everything it could to increase the payment, adding that it would work harder to increase the dividend for 2019 financial year.
“As an institution, we will continue to support the activities of the government to help in achieving its revenue targets,” he said.
The Finance Minister said, “GCNet has been really integral in the whole issue of trade facilitation and revenue at the country’s ports. But we still got a long way to go.”
“Revenue to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is about 12.6 percent and we need to move to 19 percent, so the intervention by service providers like GCNet is going to be crucial of preventing the leakages,” he added.
Operations
The company continues to leverage on technology to reshape the trade facilitation and revenue mobilization space. Currently, it provides an end- to- end smart e-solution for clearance at the ports.
To ensure Transparency and Revenue Assurance to Custom operations, GCNet deployed the Trade Facilitation Platform (TFP), a comprehensive web-based suite to further enhance the Single Window offering. The TFP ensures maximum synergy between Customs, Logistics Partners and Other Government Agencies while enhancing user experience and improving the ease of doing business.
In addition, GCNet has deployed the third version of the Ghana Customs Management Systems (GCMS) and the advanced version of the Manifest document to facilitate fast clearance of goods from the ports.
It has also facilitated the smooth implementation of the First Port Duty Rule policy directive and integrated the Ghana Customs Management System (GCMS) with the National Petroleum Authority’s (NPA) Petroleum Orders and related payment requirements to petroleum tax revenue collection.
