Developing countries are expected to spend trillions of dollars to fight child marriages by 2030, a World Bank research has said.

The "economic impacts of child marriage reports" was conducted and published by the WB and the International Center for Research on Women.

It is the first study conducted by the two institutions to look at the global cost of child marriages in order to make an economic case for its eradication.

Mr Raphael Godlove Ahenu, the Chief Executive Officer of Global Media Foundation, a human rights media advocacy organisation, made this known when he interacted with journalists in Sunyani to unveil his NGOs new advocacy on child marriages.

Describing the report as worrying, Mr Ahenu said urgent attention was needed and called for total commitment from African leaders to intensify advocacy to fight child marriages.

He said projections on child marriage in Africa were alarming and its devastating effects on girls were also enormous.

Mr Ahenu said due to population growth many girls in Africa would become victims of child marriages.

"If nothing is done to accelerate progress to end child marriages now, it is estimated that the number of child brides in Sub-Saharan Africa is expected to double by 2050", he said.

Mr Ahenu called on Africa leaders to allocate adequate technical and financial resources for effective implementation of the strategic framework on child marriages.

He said the increasing recognition of child marriage as a serious national issue has led to a growing number of initiatives by both government and civil society organisations to address the problem in the country.

Mr Ahenu called on the government to resource the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection to enable it intensify the campaign and help tackle the national challenge.

He also called for effective coordination in the implementation of the Child and Family Welfare Policy, the Gender Policy and other sectoral polices as well as initiatives by CSOs that aims at ending child marriages in the country.

Mr Ahenu said child marriages have negative implications on Ghana's economic prosperity.

'It reduces the human capital available for the country's development as millions of girls who fall victim could not contribute to nation building".

He said his NGO would educate communities, families and children about the laws and conventions on child marriage.

GNA