The Ghana Standards Board (GSB) has discovered the sale on the Ghanaian market of underweight bags of cement.

Instead of the declared net weight of 50 Kilograms (Kg), samples of cement bags inspected by the Board fell well short of that weight.

A release issued in Accra by the GSB and signed by Ms. Esther A. Aleba, the acting Head of the GSB?s Public Relations Unit, said the discovery was made during a recent market surveillance exercise conducted in Accra.

The said samples of ten cement bags each manufactured by Ghana Cement Company Limited (GHACEM) and West Africa Cement Company Limited (WACEM) that were bought from some cement retailers had revealed an average weight per bag of between 39.71 Kg and 40.35 Kg respectively.

The statement therefore cautioned retailers, to ensure that each bag of cement presented for sale on the market contained at least the declared net weight of 50 Kg. of cement, as indicated by on the cement bag, and as stipulated in the Ghana Standard (IGS) number 22, was clearly not the quantity of cement actually being sold.