The Minister for the Interior, Muntaka Mohammed-Mubarak, has revealed that Ghana’s security services currently comprise fewer than 100,000 personnel, yet their wage bill already amounts to approximately GH¢13 billion.

Speaking at a media briefing on Wednesday, March 11, regarding the ongoing security services recruitment, the minister emphasised that the current staffing levels across the various agencies remain limited relative to the country’s growing security needs.

He stated that the Ghana Police Service has just over 49,000 personnel, while the Ghana Immigration Service employs about 18,000 officers. The Ghana National Fire Service has approximately 17,000 personnel, the Ghana Prisons Service has around 14,000 officers, and the Narcotics Control Commission has about 3,000 personnel.

“When you put all of them together, they are less than 100,000. But even so, the wage bill for these personnel is about GH¢13 billion,” he said.

Mr Mohammed-Mubarak noted that while the government would prefer to recruit significantly more personnel into the security services, current economic realities make such expansion challenging.

“If resources were available, I would have been the happiest person to recruit about half a million more security personnel. But we have to be practical. Can the economy absorb that? We all know that is not possible,” he explained.

He stressed that the government must balance recruitment needs with the country’s financial capacity.

The minister also highlighted initiatives designed to create alternative opportunities for young people interested in joining the security sector.

He cited the recruitment of 15,000 youth under the Youth Employment Programme to assist the police as part of the Police Assistants initiative, popularly known as “Zoom Police”. Additionally, 5,000 personnel were engaged to support the Fire Service in markets, while another 5,000 were recruited to assist the Prisons Service, bringing the total number of recruits to 25,000.

“These programmes are intended to give participants practical exposure to the work of the security services,” he said.

“Our hope is that as they work with the police, fire service, and prisons, they gain a better understanding of the job. In future recruitments, we may prioritise them because we will already know their character, behaviour, strengths, and weaknesses,” he added.

The Interior Minister reassured young people that the government will continue to create opportunities, but noted that a single recruitment exercise cannot address the country’s unemployment challenges.

“We will continue to open more opportunities for young people, but we cannot use one recruitment exercise to solve the entire problem,” he concluded.