Ghana’s anti-LGBTQ+ bill to be scrutinised before approval, president says

Ghana’s new bill criminalising LGBTQ+ activities will undergo scrutiny before it is officially approved, the president has said. Speaking during a visit to the UK, John Mahama said his legal council and attorney general would “sit on it because it was a private members’ motion… [and] not a government bill”.

The bill – passed by parliament on Friday- proposes up to three years imprisonment for identifying as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or queer, and a “duty to report” prohibited acts to police. “We will look at it and make sure that everything is in order,” Mahama said, adding that the bill would be referred to the Council of State – his advisors – if there were any problems. Since coming into power last year, Mahama has been pressured by religious leaders to strengthen anti-gay measures, which ban same-sex relationships under laws dating from the British colonial era.

Discussing the bill during a question and answer session in London on Monday, Mahama also said there were some procedural lapses in its passage, which are being addressed by the Speaker of parliament. A similar bill was first introduced to parliament in August 2021 after an LGBTQ+ resources centre was shut down in the capital, Accra. Mahama’s predecessor, former President Nana Akufo-Addo, failed to give his assent to that version of the bill before leaving office last year. When it passed in 2024, it was challenged by multiple lawsuits at the Supreme Court, which Akufo-Addo used as a reason for not approving it.