'This is nonsense' - Vim Lady descends on IMF over its foreign conditionality on LGBT+

Afia Pokua, popularly known as Vim Lady, has descended heavily on the International Monetary Fund (IMF) concerning their foreign policy on anti-LGBT+.

She fumed about the fact that the IMF requires foreign countries to comply with their regulation on anti-LGBT+ to sustain their relationship with them.

Vim Lady expressed her displeasure about the consistent rate at which Ghana has resorted to financial assistance from the IMF to manage the economy, adding that it is the reason why the American institution can determine the country’s sexual orientation.

She described the IMF conditionality on LGBT+ as “nonsense” because it has nothing to do with monetary negotiations for a loan.

“So now they [IMF] determine our foreign policy and economy for us. We are the only third-world country that, before the IMF gave out loans, included LGBT+ as a condition, this is nonsense.

"Is the IMF a bank, or why should somebody’s sexual rights be a concern? Because they know we are incapable of managing the economy, they made it a condition. I don’t understand why we have been to the IMF seventeen times and that’s why they want to determine for us,” she said while speaking on Okay FM monitored by GhanaWeb.

Background

The Ministry of Finance, together with the Bank of Ghana (BoG) and the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), called on President Akufo-Addo to defer assenting to the Promotion of Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill (anti-gay bill) recently passed by the Parliament of Ghana.

In a statement sighted by GhanaWeb, the ministry urged President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo not to assent the anti-bill into law.

It explained that assenting to the bill would have negative repercussions on Ghana’s economy because it would hit various agreements the government has entered into.

The ministry pointed out that if the bill becomes law, it would affect World Bank financing of government projects to the tune of US$3.8 billion.

It added that the passage of the bill would also affect the International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout programme, which Ghana is currently undergoing, as well as the country’s domestic and external debt-restricting programme.

Impact of anti-gay bill in the IMF Programme:

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.

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