By Issah Olegor
The ongoing recruitment into the security services has ignited a fresh political debate after the Minister for the Interior, Mohammed Mubarak Muntaka, defended the government’s decision to recruit only a limited number of personnel despite the overwhelming number of applicants, raising questions about the implementation of the governing National Democratic Congress’ flagship 24-hour economy policy.
The controversy follows revelations by the Interior Minister that although over 500,000 young Ghanaians applied for recruitment into the country’s security services, the government currently has financial clearance to recruit only about 5,000 personnel, even though over 105,000 applicants were successful in the aptitude test.
However about 100,000 of the qualified applicants cannot make it to the various training depots at the Interior Minister indicated that there is no budget to cover them.
The announcement has left hundreds of thousands of applicants disappointed and has intensified criticism from both political opponents and frustrated job seekers.
The recruitment exercise, which covers agencies under the Interior Ministry including the Ghana Police Service, Ghana Immigration Service, Ghana National Fire Service ,and Ghana Prisons Service, has become one of the most widely discussed employment processes in recent years due to the unprecedented number of applicants.
According to Muntaka, about 400,000 candidates sat for the aptitude test introduced under the ministry’s new electronic recruitment system.
Out of that number, approximately 105,000 applicants achieved the required 65 percent pass mark and qualified to proceed to the next stage of the recruitment process, which involves medical examinations and further background checks.
However, despite the large number of qualified candidates, the Interior Minister made it clear that only a small portion of them can be enlisted due to the country’s economic realities.
“If resources were available, I would have been the happiest person to recruit about half a million more security personnel. But we have to be practical. Can the economy absorb that? We all know that is not possible,” he said.
Muntaka explained that the entire security services workforce currently numbers less than 100,000 personnel, yet the government already spends about GH¢13 billion annually on their wages.
Providing a breakdown of the figures, he disclosed that the Ghana Police Service currently has slightly over 49,000 officers, while the Ghana Immigration Service employs about 18,000 personnel.
The Ghana National Fire Service has around 17,000 staff, the Ghana Prisons Service employs roughly 14,000 officers, and the Narcotics Control Commission has about 3,000 personnel.
“When you put all of them together, they are less than 100,000. But even so, the wage bill for these personnel is about GH¢13 billion,” the minister said.
The Interior Minister’s explanation has, however, sparked criticism from political observers and opposition figures who argue that the government’s stance appears to contradict the NDC’s flagship economic policy proposal — the 24-hour economy — which was promoted as a key solution to Ghana’s unemployment crisis during the 2024 election campaign.
The 24-hour economy policy is designed to encourage round-the-clock economic activity in key sectors such as manufacturing, transportation, health services, retail, and security, with the expectation that extended working hours would significantly increase productivity, stimulate economic growth, and create thousands of new jobs.
Under the concept, industries and public institutions would operate in shifts across the day and night, requiring expanded staffing and increased security presence to ensure the safety of businesses and workers operating outside traditional working hours.
Critics therefore argue that if the government is committed to implementing a 24-hour economy, expanding the country’s security services workforce should logically form a central part of that strategy.
Some analysts have also pointed to another campaign message that resonated strongly during the elections — the NDC’s “1-3-3 job creation concept,” which promised that every new economic initiative under the administration would generate employment for at least three people per opportunity.
However, the limited recruitment numbers announced by the Interior Ministry have raised questions about whether the government is currently in a position to operationalise these ambitious employment policies.
The recruitment exercise has also generated significant frustration among thousands of unsuccessful applicants, including supporters of the governing NDC who expected that the party’s electoral victory would translate into job opportunities.
Many of these applicants have taken to social media and radio platforms to express anger over their disqualification during the aptitude testing stage of the recruitment process.
The growing dissatisfaction within the party’s grassroots prompted the National Chairman of the NDC, Johnson Asiedu Nketiah, to address the matter during his ongoing “Thank You Tour” across the country following the party’s electoral victory.
Speaking to party supporters on March 12, 2026, Mr. Asiedu Nketiah acknowledged the frustration among many young people seeking employment but emphasised the scale of the unemployment crisis facing the country.
“If 50,000 persons are recruited into the Police Service, there won’t be any thieves,” he said, using the remark humorously to highlight the enormous number of people competing for limited security service positions.
He further illustrated the challenge by referencing the massive number of applications received.
“If all the 500,000 applicants become police officers, where will they find thieves to arrest?” he asked.
The NDC Chairman also reiterated the government’s commitment to reforming recruitment into the security services by eliminating the controversial protocol system, under which recruitment slots were previously allocated through political influence.
According to him, the government intends to gradually replace the system with an open and merit-based recruitment framework accessible to all qualified Ghanaians.
“There should be no recruitment protocol for the security services at all,” he said, stressing that the new policy direction is intended to ensure fairness and transparency in public sector employment.
For his part, Muntaka has consistently defended the recruitment reforms, explaining that the introduction of online applications, centralised screening, and aptitude testing was necessary to eliminate corruption and political interference in the recruitment process.
He also warned that stricter screening is required to address challenges that already exist within the security services.
“We are having a challenge with people with mental and drug issues in the service,” the Interior Minister revealed, explaining that stronger recruitment procedures are necessary to maintain discipline and professionalism within the security agencies.
Despite the government’s defence of the recruitment process, the unfolding controversy has become a broader national discussion about unemployment, political expectations, and the practical challenges of implementing ambitious economic policies such as the 24-hour economy.
