More than 105,000 applicants have qualified for the medical screening stage of the ongoing recruitment into Ghana’s security services, but only 5,000 positions are currently available Interior Minister Muntaka Mohammed-Mubarak has disclosed.
Speaking during a press briefing, on Wednesday, March 11, he revealed that a stark imbalance between the number of qualified candidates and the state’s limited intake capacity.
The massive pool of successful applicants emerged from the online aptitude tests conducted as part of the recruitment process for the country’s various security agencies. However, the Interior Minister cautioned that while many may successfully clear the medical examinations, the vast majority will not be recruited this year due to fiscal constraints.
“We still have 105,000 who have qualified for medicals. In reality, the total number we can take after medicals is 5,000, so we still face a huge challenge,” Mr. Mohammed-Mubarak stated.
Faced with the prospect of widespread disappointment, the government is implementing a strategy to manage expectations and preserve the gains made in identifying qualified candidates. The Minister urged applicants who may not be selected in the current exercise to remain patient, revealing that the President has directed that the data of all candidates who successfully pass the medical stage be retained for future recruitment opportunities.
The government anticipates additional recruitment drives in 2026, once constraints linked to the International Monetary Fund programme begin to ease. This would allow future exercises to draw from the same pool of pre-qualified applicants, effectively giving those already in the pipeline priority when new positions become available.
“But the President has instructed that those who qualify and pass medicals, let’s keep their data. This is the first phase. The current recruitment is for 2025. Hopefully, when we are out of the IMF programme, we will conduct the 2026 recruitment and draw from the same pool of applicants,” he explained.
