Teenage Prostitution Booms In Kumasi

SOME TEENAGERS are seriously engaged in prostitution in Kumasi, the Ashanti regional capital, giving child traffickers an opportunity to exploit them.

Neighbourhoods such as Adum, Asafo, Nhyiaeso and Bantama have become sex trade zones for half-naked girls who hang around smoking, drinking and dancing to loud music played by drinking spots in these areas.

At the Anadwo Ye De brothel in Asafo, a large number of teenage prostitutes, mostly between the ages of 13 and 17, were making sexual advances at passersby.

A visit by DAILY GUIDE to the place on Saturday night as part of a joint operation with two NGOs, Compassion Ghana and SEWA Foundation together with Captain Smart of Adom FM, revealed general smoking of cigarette and rampant drinking of alcoholic beverages, especially those in packs, by the minors who had come from the Northern part of the country.

The place, apart from harbouring some citizens of Liberia, Togo and Nigeria, also provides fun and cheap sex for pleasure seekers who patronize the teenage prostitutes more than their older counterparts.

With just GH¢3, a man could have a round of sex, buy a pack of gin and enjoy the pleasure of a king at the brothel with a variety of girls to choose from.

The cheap sex is offered in a small room decorated with a curtain, a blue coloured bulb, a thin mattress and bed sheet to match.

One of the girls, who spoke to DAILY GUIDE without noticing, said a patron could have two ladies to sleep with at a time depending on how much he was willing to pay, but indicated that, that would be on short-time basis alone.

She said 'I am from the North but I've lived in Kumasi for more than four years now. Someone brought me here. I don't have anyone to support me financially that is why I'm doing this.'

The 15-year-old further told the paper that she survives on the sex trade as she had no relatives in Kumasi, indicating that she was introduced to the job after meeting a friend who offered to help her.

Aisha, like most of her counterparts, does not work during daytime due to the nature of the work and prefers quick sex in order to make more money in a night.

It was learnt that the teenage prostitutes, mostly porters with few of them being primary school pupils, have flocked the area due to the high demand for sex.

None of the girls leave the area to spend the night with any man to avoid getting kidnapped or killed, the paper gathered.

'We don't follow customers to any place apart from our own,' Aisha told DAILY GUIDE when she was implored to go and spend the night somewhere else.

As the number of casual sex workers increases, it is feared that the development could lead to insecurity for residents night travellers in the area.

From Ernest Kofi Adu, Kumasi