Ghana's Adolescent Sexual Health Crisis: One in Seven Boys, One in Ten Girls Having Sex Before Age 15

The Ghana Health Service (GHS) has sounded the alarm over the scale of early sexual activity among young people in Ghana, disclosing figures that lay bare the depth of the country's adolescent reproductive health challenge.

One out of ten adolescent girls and one out of seven adolescent boys in Ghana engage in sexual intercourse before the age of 15, the GHS has revealed.The disclosure came at the fourth Adolescent Sexual Reproductive Health (ASRH) Summit held in Accra on June 18, 2026, organized by the National Population Council (NPC).

The Deputy Director of the Family Health Division of the GHS, Dr Chris Opoku Fofie, speaking on behalf of Director General Dr Samuel Kaba Akoriyea, said that among sexually active adolescents, the unmet need for family planning or contraceptives remained alarmingly high at 51 per cent, while adolescent pregnancy rates had stagnated at around 10 per cent in recent years.

The numbers on contraception are no less disturbing. Half of adolescents who were sexually active had sex without any contraception, even when such interventions were readily available. Adolescents also accounted for 10 per cent of antenatal registrants each year, and the uptake of emergency contraception continued to rise in most of the populous regions of the country, often at the expense of condom use.

Dr Fofie noted that the GHS had recorded a doubling of emergency contraception use among adolescent girls in populous regions such as Greater Accra and Ashanti, but said data had shown that adolescents were substituting emergency contraception for condoms a troubling trend with implications for sexually transmitted infections.

The Ministry of Education's stance has complicated the picture. Despite the evidence pointing to the urgency of sexual and reproductive health education, the Ministry of Education strongly advocates abstinence in schools, thereby removing the opportunity to engage schools on family planning or sexual education. Yet Dr Fofie identified the education system itself as a potential solution. With 76 per cent of secondary school-age adolescents currently enrolled in school, he argued that the education platform provided a powerful channel to equip young people with the knowledge, skills and values they needed to make informed decisions about their sexual and reproductive health.

The HIV burden among young people adds further urgency to these findings. According to the 2023 Ghana AIDS Commission HIV Estimates, Ghana had an estimated 334,095 people living with HIV across all age groups. Among adolescents aged 10 to 19 years, 16,381 were living with HIV, while 33,245 young people aged 15 to 24 years were affected.

School pregnancy data from the Education Management Information System (EMIS) of the Ministry of Education tells a parallel story of escalating risk. The incidence of pregnancies recorded in schools stood at 6,476 in the 2020/2021 academic year, rising to 8,438 in 2021/2022, and further to 8,805 in 2022/2023.

The demographic context makes the stakes even higher. Referencing the 2021 Population and Housing Census, the NPC noted that over 70 per cent of Ghana's population was under the age of 35, with adolescents and young people aged 15 to 24 making up approximately 20 per cent of the total population.

The acting Executive Director of the NPC, Angelina Osei Kodua-Nyanor, said that if young people were healthy, educated and empowered, they could drive economic growth, innovation and national development but if their needs were neglected, the consequences would be felt across generations.

The 2022 Ghana Demographic and Health Survey had earlier flagged related concerns. Its findings indicated that 10.2 per cent of adolescent girls initiated sexual activity before age 15. Although the proportion of young girls engaging in early sexual activity had declined slightly from 12 per cent in 1993 to 10.2 per cent in 2022, the two percentage point reduction over 29 years was considered minimal given the numerous educational campaigns aimed at curbing the trend.

Geographic concentration of risk is another dimension. Nine out of the ten districts with the highest prevalence of girls engaging in sex before age 16 were in the Ashanti Region, including Akrofuom, Amansie South, Amansie Central, Amansie West and others.

Mustapha Bature Sallama.
Medical/ Science Communicator,
Private Investigator, Criminal investigation and Intelligence Analysis.

International Conflict Management and Peace Building.USIP

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+233-555-275-880
References:
Augustina Tawiah, "Under-15s engaging in sex GHS worried," Daily Graphic / Graphic Online, June 20, 2026. https://www.graphic.com.gh/news/general-news/ghana-news-under-15s-engaging-in-sex-ghs-worried.html

Ghana Statistical Service, 2022 Ghana Demographic and Health Survey Adolescent Risky Behavior Report. Reported via GhanaWeb, January 28, 2025.https://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/Study-reveals-high-rate-of-STIs-among-Ghanaian-adolescents-1969173

National Population Council (NPC), Ghana Fourth Adolescent Sexual Reproductive Health (ASRH) Summit, Accra, June 18, 2026.

2023 Ghana AIDS Commission HIV Estimates, cited at the Fourth ASRH Summit, June 2026.

Education Management Information System (EMIS), Ministry of Education, Ghana School Pregnancy Data 2020–2023.