E-levy was signed into law while it was still in court – Prof. Gatsi reacts to Akufo-Addo’s comments on anti-LGBTQ+ bill

Professor John Gatsi, Dean of the University of Cape Coast Business School, has criticised the position of President Akufo-Addo to defer assenting to the anti-LGBTQ+ bill after a Supreme Court ruling on the matter.

President Akufo-Addo, in his initial remarks following the passage of the Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill by Parliament, noted that Ghanaians hold hands while awaiting the decision from the Supreme Court before “any action is taken”.

But Prof. Gatsi, speaking on TV3’s Ghana Tonight programme on March 4, questioned the basis of the President’s assertion because the bill is yet to become law, adding, “When E-levy [Electronic Transaction Service Levy] was sent to court, the President still went ahead to sign the E-levy bill into law”.

“What is so significant or strange about this bill that the bill has not even matured into law and some people are seeking some explanation to be provided by the Supreme Court about this bill?”  he quizzed.

According to Prof. Gatsi, the country is not yet at the point of Supreme Court interpretation, stating, “We don’t have a law so to speak, because technically we have not completed the process”.

He also maintained that all the happenings following the passage of the bill are to ensure that the bill does not receive presidential assent to become law.

He stressed that there is a heavy dose of lobbying activity going on against the signing of the anti-LGBTQ+ bill.

“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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“And now they are using our own finance ministry to blackmail Ghanaians to support the President not to sign the bill”, Prof. Gatsi added.

Meanwhile, the Finance Ministry has urged President Akufo-Addo not to assent to the anti-LGBTQ+ bill. The Ministry, in a statement, emphasised that Ghana could lose over US$3.8 billion in World Bank financing should the bill be enacted into law.

Finance Ministry on anti-LGBTQ bill: This is just a deliberate attempt to get the bill not assented. – Prof. John Gatsi, Dean, UCC Business School#GhanaTonight pic.twitter.com/g3aVfHpM7t

— #TV3GH (@tv3_ghana) March 5, 2024

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.