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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."