A professor of economics and dean of the University of Cape Coast Business School, Professor John Gatsi, has asserted that there is a heavy dose of lobbying aimed at forcing President Akufo-Addo not to assent into law the newly passed anti-gay bill.
He noted that the finance ministry of Ghana is being manipulated in its appeal for the President not to sign the Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill, 2021.
Prof. Gatsi’s comments come on the back of the Ministry of Finance’s financial report to President Akufo-Addo detailing the amount of money Ghana is likely to lose from its international donors, such as the World Bank, should he assent to the controversial bill.
According to the financial report by the ministry, Ghana could lose over US$3.8 billion from the World Bank upon the enactment of the anti-gay bill. However, the President, in a statement today [March 4], indicated that the bill is “yet to reach his desk”.
Prof. Gatsi speaking on TV3’s Ghana Tonight, on Monday, March 4, wondered about the role of the ant-gay bill as far as the conditions for the IMF bailout are concerned.
He emphasized that the anti-gay bill, whether it becomes a law or not, was not part of the conditions for Ghana to receive the IMF board’s approval for the US$3 billion rescue loan.
“It sounds like there is a heavy dose of lobbying activities going on [in] these last minutes of the process. We knew that the constituents of the world that are not happy with the stand of Ghana on LGBTQ were very clear. All attempts were made to stop the process in parliament that didn’t happen”, he said, adding that the international community, having seen the signs of a unanimous decision to pass the bill in parliament, has occasioned “the upscale of lobbying activities across the board”.
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- Ghana to lose US$3.8 billion in World Bank Financing if anti-LGBTQ+ is assented – Ministry of Finance
“And now they are using our own finance ministry to blackmail Ghanaians to support the President not to sign the bill”, Prof. Gatsi added.
He stressed that all these efforts are geared towards the bill not becoming law]
“When we went to the IMF, there was no condition regarding LGBTQ issues”, the economics professor said.
“In fact, when the World Bank was giving us [Ghana] money, the only thing that they were waiting for was the signing of the IMF deal that opened the door for them to provide those credits that they’re providing to us”, he told Alfred Ocansey on Ghana Tonight.
Prof. Gatsi continued by stating that “of course, those monies are not free money, we are going to pay back those monies, and the only condition, according to him, was for the parliament of Ghana to consider those loans and approve them, which has been done long ago.
Some of the areas the Finance Ministry feared World Bank financing could be cut include the US$300 million First Ghana Resilient Recovery Development Policy Operation.
Another US$300 million on-going negotiation for the Second Ghana Resilient Recovery Development Policy Operation, and another US$250 million for the Ghana Financial Stability Fund.
Also, the finance ministry feared the disbursement of US$2.1 billion for on-going projects and another US$900 million worth of projects would cease when the bill becomes law.