The Minister for the Interior, Muntaka Mohammed-Mubarak, has said the government would readily expand recruitment into Ghana’s security services if the economy could support it.

Speaking at a media briefing on Wednesday, March 11, regarding the ongoing security services recruitment, the minister acknowledged frustrations among young people over the limited number of available positions.

He noted that while the government is aware of the high level of interest among the youth to join the security agencies, financial constraints make it impossible to absorb everyone at once.

“If the resources were there, I would have been the happiest person if we were able to recruit about half a million more security personnel. But let’s be practical. Can our economy absorb that? We all know that, in reality, it is not possible,” he said.

Mr Mohammed-Mubarak explained that the current strength of Ghana’s security services remains below 100,000 personnel across the major agencies.

He noted that the Ghana Police Service alone has just over 49,000 officers, while the Ghana Immigration Service, Ghana National Fire Service, and Ghana Prisons Service collectively account for several thousand more.

However, he stressed that the wage bill for these personnel already stands at about GH¢13 billion, making large-scale recruitment financially challenging under current economic conditions.

“If you have a police force of 50,000, can you realistically take on 130,000 more and add to the existing 49,000? This is the situation we face,” he said.

The minister, therefore, appealed to young people to understand the government’s limitations in expanding recruitment within the security services.

He added that while not everyone can be recruited at once, the government will continue to explore programmes and future opportunities to gradually absorb more young people into the sector.

“I want to plead with the rank and file of our youth to appreciate this. That is why we have introduced a number of other measures, which we hope in the future may even help us as a way of screening them,” he said.