The production of pozzolana in the country is to increase from the current 200 to 5,000 bags per day, when a commercial plant becomes operational in the middle of 2010. This follows the injection of additional capital into the project by its foreign investors. Local demand for the cement complement produced from clay has increased as the price of clinker cement rises. Partnering institution, the Building and Road Research Institute (BRRI) of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) expects an upscale in building and construction projects, in the wake of Ghana’s oil and gas exploration. Director of the BRRI, Ing. Eugene Atiamo, has told Luv FM that the installation of pozzolana plant at Gomoa in the Central region should be completed by April next year to produce between 4,000 and 5,000 bags per day. The capacity of the Kumasi plant would also be increased from 200 to 500 bags per day by January next year. Mr. Atiamo said additional plants are to be established in other parts of the country to meet expected demands of the commodity. “From the positive response we are getting from the ministries, especially Education, Works and Housing as well as Science and Technology, the investors are also interested in putting up other plants in Tamale and Takoradi to meet the demand”, he said. Engineer Atiamo noted that there are opportunities for local firms to distribute the product which is in high demand. “We think that now we should not be involved in retailing because now we’ve pumped in a lot of money and we should be able to distribute the risk by getting distributors to take the material form the factory and retail to the consumers”, he said, adding that dealers in building and construction materials can retail the commodity at a competitive advantage. “We will give it to them (distributors) at discount prices such that the product would sell at competitive price to cement on the market”, Mr. Atiamo emphasized. The BRRI Director however expects cement companies to expand production to ease the high cost and shortfall in the supply. He said “once we are expanding, we also expect that the cement factories would also expand because there is no way pozzolana alone can meet the demand. I am positive that GHACEM and Diamond will also expand and Buipe especially is a positive development because now we are going to use our local limestone to produce cement”. Story by Kofi Adu Domfeh