The Interior Minister, Muntaka Mohammed-Mubarak, has disclosed that more than 500,000 young people applied for the ongoing recruitment into the country’s security services, but only 5,000 positions are available.

Addressing journalists on Wednesday after parliamentary proceedings, the minister described the number of applicants as overwhelming, noting that the government is unable to employ all qualified candidates given the current economic situation.

He revealed that the applicants include about 75,000 university graduates and more than 330,000 senior high school leavers.

"I checked from the portal; graduates alone who applied were 75,000, and those with SHS qualification, 330,000," he said.

The minister said the government appreciates the interest shown by the youth but stressed that employment opportunities remain limited due to the economic conditions inherited by the current administration.

"But you cannot use one recruitment process to deal with all these, knowing the kind of economy that we inherited and the challenges that we inherited," he added.

Mr Muntaka explained that despite the large number of applications, the available recruitment quota across the security agencies stands at only 5,000.

According to him, about 105,000 applicants who sat the online aptitude test have successfully passed the medical stage of the recruitment process.

He therefore appealed to applicants who may not be selected to remain patient, assuring them that the government intends to consider them in the next phase of recruitment expected in 2026, when Ghana exits its programme with the International Monetary Fund.