Recruit 40,000 into security services in 4 years - President Mahama directs
President John Dramani Mahama has directed that the security services should recruit 40,000 men and women over four years instead of the initially intended 20,000.
The President has also directed the heads of the security agencies to ensure transparency and fairness in the recruitment process.
This was contained in a statement issued by the Minister of Government Communications, Felix Kwakye Ofosu, in Accra yesterday.
President Mahama gave the directive during a high-level meeting in Accra with the heads of security agencies, the Minister of the Interior and acting Minister of Defence on the ongoing security services recruitment process.
Present at the meeting were the Chief of Staff, Julius Debrah; Secretary to the President, Callistus Mahama; Senior Presidential Advisor on Governmental Affairs, Dr Valerie Sawyerr; the Inspector General of Police, Christian Tetteh Yohuno; the National Security Coordinator, Commissioner of Police Abdul-Razak Osman; the Director-General of the Ghana Prisons Service, Patience Baffoe-Bonnie; the Director-General of the Ghana National Fire Service, Daniella Mawusi Ntow Sapong; the Comptroller-General of the Ghana Immigration Service, Samuel Basintale Amadu, and the Director-General of the Narcotics Control Commission, Brigadier General Maxwell Obuba Mantey.
The Minister for the Interior, Muntaka Mohammed-Mubarak, addressing journalists in Parliament last Wednesday, disclosed that only 5,000 applicants would be recruited into the country’s security services.
The figure, he said, was in spite of the more than 105,000 candidates qualifying for the next stage of the ongoing recruitment exercise.
Mr Mohammed-Mubarak explained that the large number of successful applicants emerged after candidates undertook online aptitude tests as part of the recruitment process into the country’s security agencies.
He said the total number of applicants comprised 75,000 tertiary graduates and 330,000 West African Senior School Certificate Examination certificate holders.
The minister indicated that although over 105,000 applicants had progressed to the medical screening stage, the limited number of available vacancies meant that only a small proportion would eventually be enlisted this year.
However, following the minister’s statement on the recruitment exercise, the Minority in Parliament raised concern about the development and called for a bipartisan parliamentary probe into the centralised recruitment process for appropriate review.
“These applicants should not be forced to bear the financial consequences of what appears to be a poorly managed, exploitative recruitment process,” it said.
It, therefore, urged the government to refund the application fees of all disqualified applicants during the recruitment process.
Addressing the media on behalf of the Minority Caucus in Parliament, the Ranking Member on the Defence and Interior Committee, Rev. John Ntim Fordjour, said the ongoing recruitment exercise into security services had raised serious questions about transparency, fairness and the integrity of government decision-making.
The MP for Assin South said the recruitment into the security services was a major National Democratic Congress campaign promise in 2024, for which reason over 506,000 Ghanaian youth responded to the government’s call in 2025 and applied to join various security services under the Ministry of the Interior.
