Professor Henry Kwesi Prempeh of the Ghana Centre for Democratic Development’s (CDD-Ghana) assertion that the Executive did not engage the Legislature properly on the ramifications of the passage of the Anti-Gay bill has been supported by Asante Akyem North MP, Andy Kwame Appiah-Kubi.
The Member of Parliament who earlier chastised the Professor for getting it wrong on his assertion that there was no extensive consultation on the bill during the processes appreciated Prof. Prempeh’s stance when host of The KeyPoints, Alfred Ocansey, read out the CDD man’s position to the MP.
According to Prof. Prempeh, “the more reason the Executive should have taken exceptional interest in it (Anti-LGBTQ Bill) from the beginning and did serious engagement with all the key stakeholders knowing its severe implications for the economy and the country’s various international interests and obligations. You don’t just sit and watch a bill like this go through Parliamentary processes for over two years without having any serious engagements with its sponsors and backers. Who does that?” he quizzed.
Reacting to the matter on the show on TV3 Saturday, March 09, 2024, Mr. Appiah-Kubi noted that there were series of consultation from the clergy to CSOs and other interest groups who came to Parliament with their concerns on the bill.
However, the Executive’s failure to discuss thoroughly with Parliament, the implications the Finance Ministry speaks about, according to the MP is problematic, looking at the ramifications of the bill as the Ministry is raising.
“He is trying to say that the Executive did not engage Parliament enough, I agree with him,” Mr. Appiah-Kubi noted.
“But it was also going to be better if the Executive had come in to also state positions [on the matter].
“We had a lot of people coming to Parliament to take positions but I agree that maybe the Executive didn’t take particular interest during the process to state the position they are stating now. Maybe if they had probably stated that position during the course of the bill maybe they may have changed. But the principle of ensuring the criminalization of advocacy and promotion of LGBTQ will remain untouched but we may have, maybe, on the sanctions system, we may have maybe looking at the length of incarceration and all that. And we even affected it because started from 10 years and we ended at 5 years,” he explained.
The concerns come on the back of a statement issued by the Ministry of Finance on the possible implications of the Anti-LGBTQ Bill from Ghana’s development partners should the President assent to it.
The Ministry is urging President Akufo-Addo to hold off on signing the bill into law as it may cost the country greatly.
These risks include a potential loss of $850 million in budgetary support from the World Bank this year alone.
In the 5-page document, the Ministry explained that “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 the country’s reserve position,” the statement added.
