Four out of every ten girls have once or twice slept with their pastors or Mallams as a result of poverty, fear or respect, a survey conducted by International Needs Ghana, a local NGO, has revealed.

The report says these callous religious leaders take advantage of their helpless victims in return for helping them (poor girls) financially.

"What is worrying is that about 70 per cent of these young commercial workers don’t even protect themselves before sex, and one can guess the negative effect of this situation," Ms Joyce Odame, a representative of the NGO, stated during a stakeholders’ forum in Accra to launch a report on Commercial Service Exploitation on Children.

Ms Odame said most of the victims surveyed have decided to shelve the abuse for fear of causing uproar as a result of the positions and status of some of the pastors and Mallams.

The survey that took place at Nima, Osu, Kotobabi and New Town and their environs had over 1,000 young school dropout girls as its sample size.

The report further revealed that most of the young girls migrated from the villages into the cities to trade in this abominable business as a result of the high rate of divorce, economic hardship, as well as lack of parental care.

To nip the situation in the bud, Rev. Walter Pimpong, the Executive Director of IN-Gh, told The Independent that the situation needed a concerted effort to avoid social explosion.

He disclosed that International Needs Ghana would collaborate with government and other relevant agencies to help address the situation.