Minister of State-designate for Finance, Abena Osei-Asare says that the widely circulated document on the cost of signing the anti-LGBTQI bill was not advice to the President.

The Finance Ministry warned in that document that Ghana could lose an estimated $3.8 billion over the next five to six years should President Akufo-Addo sign the controversial anti-LGBTQ+ bill.

Days after the bill was passed, the Ministry outlined the negative implications of the document on its expenditure, key government plans, and projects.

The office urged President Akufo-Addo to hold off on signing the bill into law as it may cost the country greatly.

However, appearing before the appointment committee today, the former Deputy Finance Minister stated that the document was an internal memo that got leaked to the public.

"We heard certain sentiments from certain stakeholders so what we sought to do was to see how best we can address any revenue gap issue should they arise as a result of the passage of the bill. It was an internal memo. It wasn't a memo that was to be sent outside because we were sitting to see how best we could close the gap," she explained on Wednesday, March 13.

Meanwhile, she says government has no intention to bring back road tolls in 2024.

"The document that spells out the vision for the government in 2024 is the budget. So we are working with the budget and in the budget for 2024, I don’t think we introduced any lime item for road tolls and so it remains as such."

On the country's economic standings, the Minister-designate revealed that Ghana’s public debt is GHs621 billion as of December 2023.