A Private legal practitioner and a member of the Convention Peoples Party (CPP), Kwame Jantuah has said that Ghana will not suffer any penalty from the international communities whose businesses are operating in the country due to the anti-gay bill.
He says the foreign companies are able to maximize their profits in Ghana and hence will not just pack merely because of the anti-lgbtqi bill.
“All these international companies, they know what they get from our country, they will not stop business. Tullow Oil will not get up and go, and Newmont won’t go. None of those international companies in the country will get up and leave because they have an interest here,” he said on the Big Issue on TV3 Friday March 22.
Parliament on February 28 passed the Promotion of Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill.
There have been fears that the passage of the bill will lead to sanctions from the West.
The Ministry of Finance on Monday, March 4 pointed out dreadful implications of the president assenting to the anti-LGBTQ+ Bill.
In a brief on the implications of assenting to the Bill by President Akufo-Addo, the Ministry of Finance said the country stands to lose huge financial support from the Bretton Woods institutions.
“In total, Ghana is likely to lose US$3.8 billion in World Bank Financing over the next five to six years. For 2024, Ghana will lose US$600 million budget support and US$250 million for the Financial Stability Fund. This will negatively impact Ghana’s foreign exchange reserves and exchange rate stability as these inflows are expected to shore up the country’s reserve position,” part of the brief cited by 3news.com reads.
The Ministry of Finance provided the details as follows:
- The expected US$300 million financing from the First Ghana Resilient Recovery Development Policy Operation (Budget Support) which is currently pending Parliamentary approval might not be disbursed by the Bank when it is approved by Parliament;
- On-going negotiations on the second Ghana Resilient Recovery Development Policy Operation (DPO) for budget support amounting to US$300 million may be suspended;
- On-going negotiations for US$250 million to support the Ghana Financial Stability Fund may be suspended;
- Disbursement of undisbursed amounts totaling US$2.1 billion for ongoing projects will be suspended; and
- Preparation of pipeline projects and declaration of effectiveness for two projects totaling US$900million may be suspended.
The Ministry cautioned that, “The potential loss of these financial resources will create a financing gap in the 2024 budget that the government must address through additional domestic revenue mobilisation and a significant reduction in expenditure. Failing this, Government’s ability to achieve the targets in the 2024 Budget will be undermined and the IMF-ECF Programme is likely to be derailed.”
