Potential economic losses due to corruption, not anti-LGBTQ+ bill — Franklin Cudjoe tells Finance Ministry

Franklin Cudjoe, Founding President of IMANI Africa

The Founding President of IMANI Africa policy think tank, Franklin Cudjoe has opined on the warnings of a potential economic loss from the Ministry of Finance concerning the anti-gay bill.

The ministry in a statement on Monday, March 4, warned that the nation risks losing about 3.8 billion dollars in World Bank financing should President Akufo-Addo sign the bill passed by Parliament on Wednesday, February 28.

However, the policy advisor argued that far more money is lost annually to corruption.

“That amount constitutes nearly 90 % of annual grand theft from procurement deals on mega projects,” he noted in a Facebook post on Tuesday, March 5.

Mr. Cudjoe noted, "It is sad for a sovereign nation that prided itself never to go to the IMF, beg for crumbs because of a gay bill passed by its Parliament."

He asserted that the current government "had all the resources in multiple folds than all its predecessors to do good and leave us surplus for a rainy day. Not only did it not do that, it also through draconian debt exchange programs forcibly took our meagrely famished savings too."

According to Mr. Cudjoe, combined with "crony-capitalist tax exemptions" the amount lost to corruption reaches "the 100% mark," citing a proposed $1 billion in tax exemptions currently before parliament.

"The Finance minister must either review the exemptions or cancel them,” he noted.