The Ghana Standard Authority (GSA) says it will continue to clamp down on some cement-manufacturing companies in the country to enforce standards and not to destroy businesses.
According to the Authority, it would not renege on its key mandate of ensuring standards in the country since that was the only way it could protect lives and properties as well as ensure value for money for consumers.
Speaking to the Ghanaian Times on the sidelines of a stakeholder engagement with cement producers in Accra yesterday, the Director-General of the GSA, Professor Alex Doodo, said it was the desire of the authority that companies operating in the country did so within the laid down regulations.
"Every company operating in Ghana legally, we want it to operate, but we want them to operate within the law.
"We have no interest in closing a company down just like that because Ghana cannot lose, however, when it comes to cement, cement is a serious business...cement is used for construction and if they are substandard and used for building, it could collapse," he said.
Prof. Doodo said the country had witnessed so many building collapse and even though all could not be attributed to cement, the quality of cement used played a very critical role in it.
"This country has witnessed so many collapse of buildings not necessarily because of cement only, it could be due to cement or how cement is used, it could be due to iron rods, it could be due to a lot of reasons but we have to solve all the reasons," he said.
He said following discussions in 2019 with the Chamber of Cement Manufacturers, it was agreed that to keep the quality of cement on the market at the expected level, there was the need to undertake quarterly surveillance at the factories and market.
"As we expected and as happens and in line with what happens everywhere else, we noticed problems with every company but sometimes, it is just the weight, sometimes it is just the label or the print used and to the credit of the industry, wherever we've raised issues, it's been resolved," he said.
Prof. Doodo said the authority had worked hard to build confidence in the market and also help industry but not to punish industry.
He said in spite of this, three companies written to ignored the warning and went ahead to produce against the directive to halt their operations until the challenges identified were corrected.
Prof. Doodo said the action taken against these three companies made up of Xin AnSafe, Kumasi Cement Ghana and Unicem were not targeted.
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"These actions are not against Chinese companies, we want your investment and we want your business but we need you to comply. It is not against Indian company or Swiss or French. It is just to ensure that cement on the Ghanaian market is fit for purpose," he emphasised.
Prof. Doodo said the laws to ensure the protection of consumers would be enforced without fear or favour.
On his part, the President of Ghana Chamber of Cement Manufacturers, Rt Rev Dr George Dawson Amoah, the chamber did not support the production of any form of substandard products.
He said as a Chamber it supported the actions of the GSA and was ready to support it to find lasting solution to the problem.
