The founding president of IMANI Africa, Franklin Cudjoe, has warned that Ghana could be sitting on what he describes as a “national security time bomb” as youth unemployment continues to rise.

Speaking on Joy SMS, Mr Cudjoe pointed to the overwhelming number of applicants seeking recruitment into the country’s security services as evidence of the scale of the problem.

His comments follow a revelation by the Minister for the Interior, Muntaka Mohammed-Mubarak, that more than 405,000 people applied for just 5,000 available positions in Ghana’s security services.

The Minister disclosed the figures while speaking to journalists in Parliament on Wednesday, March 11. According to him, the applicants include about 75,000 university graduates and 330,000 holders of the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE).

Despite more than 105,000 candidates qualifying for the medical screening stage of the recruitment process, only 5,000 will eventually be absorbed this year due to fiscal constraints.

For Mr Cudjoe, the figures reflect a deeper economic crisis and a worrying trend among Ghana’s youth.

“There's more than the national security time bomb that is waiting to explode anyway. 500,000 to 5,000 jobs? That's scary,” he said.

He warned that the growing frustration among unemployed young people could fuel social problems if urgent action is not taken to expand employment opportunities.

The IMANI Africa president argued that the lack of jobs is pushing some young Ghanaians into risky activities, including online scams and irregular migration through the country’s porous borders in search of opportunities elsewhere.

Mr Cudjoe called on policymakers to prioritise job creation, stressing that governments must be “laser focused” on employment as the number one priority in any economy.

Meanwhile, Interior Minister Muntaka Mohammed-Mubarak acknowledged the scale of the unemployment challenge, noting that a single recruitment exercise by the security services cannot resolve the country’s broader job crisis.

He assured that the government will continue to explore more avenues to create opportunities for Ghana’s growing youth population.