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The ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) faces sanctions from the Catholic Bishops Conference in the coming election if President Akufo-Addo does not sign the Anti-LGBTQ+ bill into law.
The Finance Ministry expressed worries that such a move might compromise Ghana’s chances of receiving GHS3 billion from the World Bank, but this position is upheld.
The Ministry clarified in the five-page document that “for 2024 Ghana will lose US$600 million for the Financial Stability Fund and US$600 million for Budget support.”
“This will negatively impact Ghana’s foreign exchange reserves and exchange rate stability as these inflows are expected to shore the country’s reserve position.
Ghana “is likely to lose US$3.8 billion in World Bank Financing,” the Ministry stated over the course of the subsequent six years.
The Catholic Bishops, however, are adamant that the bill be passed.
Though reservations about whether or not to imprison suspects are understandable, Very Rev. Fr. Clement Kwasi Adjei claims that, “it doesn’t mean that the LGBTQ activities, we should support it.”
“We will speak and we will continue to keep speaking against what we think is wrong. If the President refuses to sign, and you know the implication for him [Nana Akufo-Addo] and his party. [I’m referring to] elections, voting… these things must not be hidden. We work in the villages, people are listening.
“The president is the father of the nation, and we believe he will do what is in the best interest of the country. I cannot imagine the president not seeing the good in this law. He may make certain corrections on reformation and reintegration of victims, but I don’t think the president will say he will not assent to it when he knows an overwhelming majority is in support of this law.”
He emphasised the need for more reformative and corrective sanctions.
“We think that in the case of this particular law and the way it is being implemented, being placed in prison as the punishment that they have chosen, it is not going to solve the problem. Because you see if you round up same-sex people and you know our prisons, they are going to end up in the same room and what is going to prevent them from going through these activities in the prison?”
“And you are not going to put them there forever because they are going to be there for three months to six months. And then they practice this and come out as more experts at it than when you sent them there. Then you release them back into society. So, what is going to happen?”
It follows the United States’ dire predictions of catastrophic effects on Ghana’s economy following the enactment of the Ghanaian Family Values and Proper Human Sexual Rights Bill by Parliament.
Already, if President Akufo-Addo signs the Ghanaian Family Values and Proper Human Sexual Rights bill, which was passed on Wednesday, some human rights organizations in Ghana have threatened to take the matter to the Supreme Court.
In light of all of this, the Finance Ministry is pleading with the President to consult interested parties, such as religious institutions, in order to explain the bill’s ramifications.
In addition, it advocated for constructive interaction with conservative nations like China and the Arab world.
Source: Ghanatodayonline.com
