Ghanaian lawmakers have reintroduced a bill that could become one of Africa’s most restrictive pieces of anti-LGBTQ legislation, according to three sponsors who spoke to Reuters. The bill, which faced legal challenges in its previous attempt, seeks to increase the maximum penalty for same-sex sexual acts from three to five years in prison and impose jail time for the “wilful promotion, sponsorship, or support of LGBTQ+ activities.”
The bill was initially approved by Ghana’s parliament in February 2024 but was not signed into law by then-President Nana Akufo-Addo before his term ended. John Dramani Mahama, who took office in January, has yet to sign the bill, which must be approved by the president to become law.
Ruling party lawmakers Samuel Nartey George and Emmanuel Kwasi Bedzrah, along with opposition lawmaker John Ntim Fordjour, confirmed that the same bill was reintroduced in parliament on February 25, sponsored by a total of 10 lawmakers. The legislation intensifies a crackdown on the rights of LGBTQ people and those accused of promoting sexual and gender minority rights.
Va-Bene Elikem Fiatsi, a Ghanaian trans woman and LGBTQ activist, described the bill’s reintroduction as “disheartening and hard to process” but vowed that pro-LGBTQ activism would continue.
The fate of the legislation remains uncertain, as President Mahama has expressed a preference for a government-sponsored law rather than one sponsored by parliamentarians. Last year, Ghana’s finance ministry warned that the bill, if signed into law, could jeopardize $3.8 billion in World Bank financing and derail a $3 billion loan package from the International Monetary Fund.
Despite past polling showing a lack of tolerance for LGBTQ people in Ghana, Fordjour stated that the country no longer needed to fear economic sanctions, citing the favorable global political climate for conservative values, as demonstrated by U.S. President Donald Trump.