The equipment, worth about £8, 500, would reduce the testing time of bitumen samples from the Western Region and to ensure that substandard product is not allowed into the market.

Mr Hassan Tampuli, Chief Executive Officer of NPA handed over the set of equipment to Mr Ernest K Arthur, Chief Executive Officer of GHA at a brief event in Accra on Monday.

He said it would ensure that services that demanded the use of bitumen especially in the road construction sector would receive the required standard materials for value for money.

Mr Tampuli stated that the move would also streamline the operations of Bitumen Marketers and enable the NPA commence the process of regulating bitumen consumption in the country.

"With this addition to the two already in Accra laboratory, the Takoradi laboratory need not to come to Accra to conduct the standard test... we are certain that only quality bitumen product will be imported into the country," he said.

Mr Arthur, receiving the equipment, thanked the NPA for assisting his outfit with the equipment and that it would foster strong collaboration between the two institutions.

He recalled that in April 2017, the NPA committee set up to streamline the operations of Bitumen Marketers in the country and identified quality of bitumen delays in the result as some of the challenges in the sector.

Mr Arthur said as part of other committee recommendations, the NPA was assisting GHA in licensing framework for regulating bitumen importation into the country had been developed and was being reviewed.