The Ministry of Finance has asked President Akufo-Addo to defer assenting to the Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill also known as the Anti-LGBTQ+ Bill.
In a four-page document, the Ministry highlighted the impact of the yet-to-be-forwarded bill to President Akufo-Addo citing the impacts it will have on World Bank funded Programmes, IMF Programmes, Debt Restructuring Programme, Implementation of the 2024 budget as well as possible adverse reaction from its international partner, Germany.
The Ministry expressed in the document that Akufo-Addo assenting to the bill will lead to a potential loss of financial resources and could create a financial gap in the 2024 budget which if not addressed could also derail the IMF program.
“While there is no direct conditionality in the IMF-ECF Programme relating to the passage of the Bill, the principles of the current IMF-ECF Programme are built on predictable financing from Development Partners (Financing Assurances) including the World Bank funded Ghana Resilience Recovery Development Policy Operations. Hence the non-disbursement of the Budget Support from the World Bank will derail the IMF programme. This will in turn trigger a market reaction which will affect the stability of the exchange rate,” part of the document read.
The impact extends to the debt restructuring programme.
On the impact on World Bank funded Programmes, the Ministry emphasized that Ghana could lose a whooping US$600 million Support and US$250 million for the Financial Stability Fund in 2024. Also, the next five to six years will witness the country likely losing US$3.8 billion in World Bank Financing.
That notwithstanding, the Ministry revealed that the African Development Bank has indicated that the passage of the bill will not harm the cooperation with Ghana.
The implications of the Anti-LGBTQ+ bill were discussed at an emergency meeting the minister of finance had with stakeholders including the Chief Director and Director of the Ministry, the Governor and 1st Deputy Governor at BoG and the Commissioner-General of GRA to ascertain the immediate impact of the passage of the Bill on the implementation of the 2024 Budget.
Meanwhile, among various recommendations derived from the meeting, the ministry advised that the government engage with religious bodies to discuss the economic implications of the bill and also added that the President may have to defer assenting to the Bill until the court rules on the legal issues tabled by key national stakeholders (CSOs and CHRAJ).
Read the full document below
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Source: Aba Aikins/ATLFMNEWS
