GOIL Company in Ghana (GOIL), in partnership with the Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlement Systems (GhIPSS), has launched the gh-link card on GOIL’s Point of Sale (POS) devices for use across the country.
With this development, all gh-link cards used mainly by banks and other financial institutions can now be used to buy fuel and other products from GOIL.
Presently, gh-link cards that can pay for fuel at GOIL stations are ARB Apex Bank, Bank of Africa, CBG, NIB, Republic Bank, OMNI BSIC Bank and ADB. The rest are Best Point Savings and Loans, Baypoint, Bond e.Transact, and Opportunity Int.
The Chief Operating Officer, COO, of GOIL, Alex Adzew, spoke on behalf of Group CEO/Managing Director, Kwame Osei-Prempeh, and noted that the company is pushing a drive to increase digitised payments to help eliminate the use of physical money at its service stations.
He said it is now of utmost importance to eliminate the use of physical money, adding that digital payment for goods and services must be encouraged because of its convenience, especially in view of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The CEO of GhIPSS, Archie Hesse, commended GOIL for what he described as a giant leap in partnering GHIPSS; adding that GhIPSS will pursue its mandate to migrate Ghana into an electronic payment regime. He noted that GOIL has shown great leadership and achieved a great feat by partnering his outfit and upgrading its POS devices to accept all gh-link cards, saying that “GOIL must be celebrated for this”.
The Head of Payment Systems-Bank of Ghana, Dr. Setor Amedeku who represented the of Bank of Ghana Governor said, given the exigencies of the times and uptakes in electronic transactions, GOIL has taken the right steps and shown leadership by collaborating with GhIPSS to broaden the scope of its electronic sales products.
The Board Chairman of GOIL, Kwamena Bartels, said apart from delivering convenience to customers, GOIL’s move – the first by an Oil Marketing Company – is part of efforts to drive the national digitisation agenda spearheaded by the Vice-President of Ghana.
A demonstration of card usage and transactions was later done by GOIL’s head of IT, Planning and Research, Anthony Twumasi. He explained that using gh-link cards at GOIL service stations offers an opportunity for good record-keeping at each purchase, with withdrawals recorded automatically on customers’ monthly bank statements – thus helping card-holders to track and manage transactions.
The launch was also attended by some Board and management members of GOIL, officials of GIPSS, GOIL’s Brand Ambassador, COPEC and representatives of some banks.
