The Executive Director of United Nations Population Fund, Prof Babatunde Osotimehin has indicated that African governments can do more in the fight against child marriages by naming and shaming men who sleep with and marry young girls.
According to him, although there are laws prohibiting child marriages in Ghana and in Africa as a whole its implementation continues to be a major challenge.
Speaking at the 7th Africa Conference on Sexual and Healthy Right in Accra on Wednesday, the Executive Director said the time has come for older men of his age to stop sleeping and dating young girls.
"There are laws prohibiting such acts but the laws are not enough, there must be community actions against the act and the men who do that needs to be shamed. The young adolescent girls need to be protected from such men."
Prof Osotimehin who was speaking on the theme of the summit "Realizing Demographic Dividend in Africa: the critical importance of adolescents and youth sexual and reproductive health and rights", said he was excited that leaders around the world are getting committed to the course of women and girl child empowerment.
He said it was time for Africa to give young people a holistic education by giving them the opportunity to bring their creative sides to bear.
"Young people must be empowered to learn on their own, form their own opinions and make mistakes because that is the only way they can ask questions, solve the problems and learn from their mistakes."
He added that Africans must stop dwelling too much on certificates and that it has not be scientifically proven that certificate breeds productivity but its rather skills.
"We have seen enrolment in school increase over the past 20 years and there is no government in the world that can employ all the graduates that churned out but when their skills are developed and are given opportunities they would create employments on their own and employ other young people."
Touching on the health, the Executive Director said health systems across Africa needs to be strengthen to provide services to the people and to fight epidemics that strikes African countries, adding that "there is no better investment in the world than in the health services."