President John Dramani Mahama has announced plans to recruit 20,000 personnel into Ghana’s security services over a four-year period, as part of efforts to expand employment opportunities for young people.
He said the Ghana Armed Forces had been given clearance to recruit 5,000 personnel in the current recruitment cycle, with subsequent batches expected to be recruited over the coming years.
President Mahama disclosed this during a question-and-answer session at a community engagement at the University for Business and Integrated Development Studies (UBIDS) in the Upper West Region.
He explained that the Armed Forces had already commenced the recruitment process, including medical examinations and the selection of qualified applicants, with the first batch invited for training.
The President assured applicants who had completed their medical examinations but had not yet received invitations that they had not necessarily been excluded from the process.
He said the large number of applicants had led government to direct the Armed Forces to maintain a continuous recruitment process.
According to President Mahama, the other security services have also been allocated 5,000 recruitment slots to be shared among the Police Service, Immigration Service, Fire Service, Prisons Service and other agencies.
He acknowledged challenges with the initial digital recruitment process for the other security services but said the problems had been resolved.
The services have consequently been instructed to continue recruitment from the existing pool of qualified applicants.
President Mahama said about 120,000 people had applied, but stressed that recruitment would be conducted in batches until the government’s four-year target of 20,000 personnel was achieved.
He, however, cautioned young people against assuming that government employment could absorb every graduate, stressing that the public service could not employ all jobseekers.
The President said the government was therefore pursuing the 24-Hour Economy and other private-sector initiatives to create additional employment opportunities.
Story by: Emmanuel Romeo Tetteh(#RomeoWrites✍️)/ Presidential Affairs Correspondent | Ghana 🇬🇭
