Rejecting LGBTQ+ will likely bring economic repercussions - Economist

A senior economist and lecturer at the University of Ghana Business School, Dr Lord Mensah, has stated that, if the country refuses to accept LGBTQ+ it is likely to suffer for its actions since international aids and grants might reduce or even dry up.

In an exclusive interview with GhanaWeb, Dr Mensah said even though we will have some challenges with our finances as a nation we need to stay focused and not fall for the pressures being mounted upon us to accept it.

“There will be if you look at the structure of the country as we speak now, at least a percentage of our budget financing comes from aid and grants and effectively if you are an economy that is not self-dependent and depending on other economies and most of the time depends in grant and favours then obviously you should expect things to be tough when you kick against some of these things…

“… because you know strategically, a lot of funding has been attached to these human right issues here and there but then sometimes you may have to get things right,” he said.

He added: “as I sit here, I believe in one thing; as a human being you must live and you have the right to live but there are some practices that you may have gone into but it is what environment that doesn’t support.

”Effectively if you are practicing gayism and the environment you are practising does not allow, you should understand that yes indeed it is not allowed in that environment.”

He called on the president to stay focused and stand his ground on the issue.

“Of course economic repercussions, we are going to suffer for it but as a country, we must stand, for one thing, that is what our constitution says and I don’t think we should deviate from that because otherwise, we will comprise our sovereignty.

”So we should expect some hardship in that regard, but the president has been drumming on working towards a free economy and so who knows, this could be an opportunity to stay focussed and get that agenda to come true,” he said.

“So for me, it is something that we should worry about but then if you look at the grant and indeed the component of our revenue financing I think it is something lesser we can somehow, someway do without it if we manage very well,” he concluded.