For Ghana to derive much benefit from the recently inaugurated bitumen processing plant at Tema, Greater Accra region, there is the need for the government to stop the importation of the product into the country, the Group CEO and Managing Director of GOIL Ghana PLC, Mr Kwame Osei Prempeh, has urged President Nana Akufo-Addo.

At the inauguration of the plant, Mr Prempeh appealed: “We humbly request that a policy that requires road contractors to source their bitumen locally be put in place and enforced.”

“Therefore, the practice where contractors are given tax waivers should be discouraged,” he added.

He said: “Ghana stands to gain if measures are put in place to prevent low grades of Bitumen being imported into the country."

"Mr. President every effort must be made to prevent the influx of Bitumen into the country through unapproved routes which will deny the country of the much-needed revenue," he noted.

The plant is a joint venture between Ghana’s GOIL PLC and Côte d'Ivoire’s Société Multinationale de Bitumes (SMB).

It has a total storage capacity of 7,500 metric tonnes and will process base bitumen imported from Côte d'Ivoire into high-quality polymer-modified bitumen (PMB) and bitumen emulsions.