Muntaka Mohammed-Mubarak
More than half a million Ghanaian youth have applied to join the country’s security services, which highlights the intense demand for employment opportunities among young people, the Minister for the Interior, Muntaka Mohammed-Mubarak, has revealed.
According to the minister, a total of 506,618 applications were received when the recruitment portal for the various security agencies closed, far exceeding the number of available positions.
Speaking to the media in Parliament yesterday, Mr. Muntaka said the Ghana Police Service alone received more than 130,000 applications, despite the current strength of the service standing at about 49,000 officers from the Inspector-General of Police to the lowest rank.
He disclosed that the Ghana Immigration Service attracted the highest number of applicants, with over 180,000 young people seeking to join the service, even though its present workforce is about 18,300 officers.
Similarly, the Ghana National Fire Service received 124,000 applications, while the Ghana Prisons Service recorded about 71,000 applicants.
Despite the overwhelming interest, the Interior Minister explained that the government can recruit only 5,000 personnel in the first phase of the exercise due to fiscal constraints and the current economic situation.
He said the limited recruitment capacity is partly linked to the nation’s economic recovery programme and the need to manage the public sector wage bill responsibly.
“As we speak, we have over half a million young people wanting to join the security services, yet the total number we can absorb in this phase is about 5,000,” he said.
Mr. Muntaka noted that the recruitment process was deliberately structured to ensure transparency and fairness, with applicants going through stages including body selection, documentation checks, aptitude tests and medical examinations.
He explained that the aptitude test pass mark was set at 65 percent in order to significantly reduce the number of candidates proceeding to the medical stage.
According to him, allowing all qualified applicants to undertake medical examinations would impose unnecessary financial burdens on many candidates, since the medical stage involves costs such as mental health screening and drug tests.
Even with the pass mark in place, he said over 105,000 applicants have still qualified to proceed to the medical stage, even though the final number of recruits will remain limited.
The Interior Minister said the government plans to retain the data of applicants who successfully pass the medical examination but are not selected for the current intake, so they can be considered in future recruitment exercises.
He indicated that once the nation exits its current economic recovery programme and fiscal space improves, additional recruitment opportunities could be created.
Mr. Muntaka acknowledged that many young people would be disappointed by the limited intake, but appealed for patience, stressing that the situation reflects a broader national challenge of unemployment rather than recruitment problems within the security services.
He also revealed that the combined personnel strength of the nation’s security agencies currently stands at less than 100,000 officers, yet their wage bill already amounts to about GH¢13 billion annually.
The minister assured the public that the government remains committed to creating more employment opportunities for the youth as the economy stabilises and grows.
By Ernest Kofi Adu, Parliament House