Mr Kwame Osei Prempeh, Group Chief Executive Officer, GOIL Company Limited, has said amidst COVID-19 pandemic, the need to eliminate the use of physical money at Filling Stations must be an utmost importance to Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs).

He said: “Digital payment for goods and services apart from being convenient, eliminates direct passage of physical cash from one person to the other which could be a breeding ground for the spread of COVID-19.

“It is important for us to take the necessary healthy personal precautions in our work and in all our endeavours”.

Mr Osei Prempeh, who is also the GOIL Managing Director, said this in a statement read on his behalf by Mr Alex Josiah Adzew, Chief Operating Officer at the launch of GOIL/gh-link Partnership “gh-link Card usage on GOIL point of sales devices”.

The GOIL/gh-link Partnership –gh-link Card usage on GOIL POS is a collaboration between Ghana Inter-bank Payment System (GhiPSS) as well as other banks in line with national digitization project.

Mr Osei Prempeh said GOIL intends to pursue vigorously the churning out of more fin-tech products, to help eliminate entirely the use of physical money at Filling Stations.

He said the gh-link is compatible with the GOIL Electronic payment system and offers additional payment option for fuel purchase at any of its over 400 filling stations.

Mr Osei Prempeh also called on GHIPPS to open up to investments from private organizations especially the banks who benefit directly from services provided by GHIPPS.

“GOIL is looking at an opportunity to use the payment system to make transfers to the accounts of suppliers through GHIPPS payment platform.

This will eliminate the use of cheques. All these are being done in pursuit of partnering with government to deepen the national digitization agenda being spearheaded by the Vice President, Alhaji Dr Mahamudu Bawumia”.

Mr Osei Prempeh said GOIL will continue to take bold decisions for the benefit of the customer and to further consolidate the position of the company as the foremost indigenous and number one OMC.

Mr Anthony Twumasi, Head of IT/Research and Planning of GOIL, said GOIL introduced digital payment at its stations as far back as 2007, with the trade name GOCard.

He said in order to make the service available to all irrespective of the bank where the customer has an account, GOIL has chosen to integrate its payment system with the national payment platform called the gh-link.

Mr Twumasi said anyone holding gh-link issued card can use it to pay for services at all GOIL stations. “GOIL becomes the first and only OMC that has developed its own payment system with accreditation from GHIPSS.

He said the use of the GH-link card offers an additional payment option for Ghanaians apart from the GOCard. The gh-link is now compatible with GOIL’s electronic payment system.