Shareholders of Ghana Oil Company Limited, GOIL, are to benefit from a 25 percent increase in dividend following a growth in profit after tax of 10.4 percent.

At the company’s Annual General Meeting in Accra, shareholders approved Board of Directors’ proposed dividend of 0.025 Ghana cedis per share for the year ending December 2015 as against 0.020 Ghana cedis per share declared the previous year.

The approved 0.025 Ghana Cedis per share amounts to 6,305,587 Ghana cedis compared with 5,044,470 Ghana cedis for the previous year. Profit after tax was 22.2million Ghana cedis in 2015 as against 20.1 million cedis the previous year.

Giving more details of the company’s performance, the chairman of the Board of Directors, Professor William Asomaning, said GOIL achieved the biggest market share of 17percent among over 85 Oil Marketing Companies despite challenging marketing conditions and stiff competition. GOIL’s fuel sales, he said, exceeded its own target by 20 percent during the year 2015.

The company, he said, remained on course to achieve successes in the retail business through competitive pricing, offering quality additivated products and value for fuel purchased by customers.

“GOIL continued to focus on growing its core business through value-added joint venture engagements, takeover of distressed competitor stations and acquisition of new stations”, he added.

On future prospects, Prof. Asomaning said, GOIL will continue to extend its operations towards the upstream sector, providing other services apart from bunkering and improve on added services such as the electronic card payment system or the GOIL Advantage card. The Company, he said will also reinvigorate its efforts to supply bitumen to satisfy growing national demand.

“GOIL intends to establish itself in every district and the name must be a household one and should be associated with quality products and excellent service delivery”, he assured shareholders.

The Managing Director of GOIL, Patrick A.K. Akorli, commended management and staff for the positive performance assuring the company was on the path of growth and will focus on major expansion projects to position it as a big player in the fuel retail business in West Africa.