Ghana has been a welcoming and tolerant society for all the years, the United States Ambassador to Ghana Virginia Palmer has observed.
She expressed hope that this would be extended to the LGBTQI+ community.
Madam Parlmer said these after warning Ghana over the anti-gay bill that is currently before Parliament.
She said if passed, the bill could push away investors from the LGBTQI community and other American investors away from Ghana.
“Ghana is a very welcoming, tolerant society, with lots of interreligious harmony, lots of ethnic harmony that makes Ghana strong and stable, and attractive for investments.
“I hope it stays that way with regard to the LGBTQI Community. There is money to be made, and the color of your money is green or red but if there is discrimination or worse then that will send a signal to not just LGBTQ investors but other American companies,” she told journalists in an interview on Thursday, August 10.
Her comments come at a time the World Bank has announced it will halt new loans to Uganda over the country’s controversial anti-LGBTQ law.
The Washington, DC-based lender said on Tuesday it would pause project financing pending a review of measures it introduced to protect sexual and gender minorities from discrimination and exclusion in its projects.
“Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Act fundamentally contradicts the World Bank Group’s values,” the lender said in a statement published by Al Jazeera network.
“We believe our vision to eradicate poverty on a livable planet can only succeed if it includes everyone irrespective of race, gender, or sexuality. This law undermines those efforts. Inclusion and non-discrimination sit at the heart of our work around the world.”
The lender will also increase third-party monitoring and grievance redress mechanisms “allowing us to take corrective action as necessary,” it said.
The World Bank Group said in May that the law was not consistent with the lender’s values and that it was “highly concerned” about its adoption.
Meanwhile, one of the sponsors of the anti-gay bill in Ghana’s Parliament, Rockson-Nelson Dafeamekpor has said that Ghana would not be disturbed by the action that the World Bank has taken against Uganda which has passed the anti-gay bill into law.
The Member of Parliament for South Dayi said the World Bank cannot blackmail African countries to accept the practice of homosexuality.
Speaking on the Midday news on TV3 Thursday, August 10, he said “Ghana is not perturbed by what is happening in Uganda. In any case, the World Bank is a bank for all of us, it is not a bank of just a group of people.
“Africa has 54 nations and if the world bank wants to blackmail Africa into accepting LGBTQ, I think they are wrong, they are biting more than they can chew. We will not back down today, we will not back down tomorrow.”