Interior Minister Mubarak Mohammed Muntaka has announced that only 5,000 applicants will be recruited into the various security services in the first phase of the ongoing recruitment exercise, citing fiscal limitations as the reason.

Addressing a press conference in Parliament on Wednesday, Alhaji Muntaka said: “The recruitment process into the Ghana Police Service, the Ghana Prisons Service, the Ghana Immigration Service, and the Ghana National Service involved mainly body selection and documentation.

“When we finished, those who got disqualified through documentation were less than 30,000, and so it is left with 400,000 who are now ready to go through aptitude tests and then medical exams.”

The Minister explained that the pass mark was set at 65 per cent to reduce the number of applicants.

He added: “We have several options, and one of the options is to set the pass mark at 65 so that many more people will pass and go for medical exams. Because the end game is that you could only absorb 5,000.”

Alhaji Muntaka noted that the government’s wish was to create jobs not only in the security services but also across sectors for the teeming youth in dire need of jobs.

“I know a lot of young people may be disappointed, but they should exercise restraint as this is not going to be the first and last recruitment that the government is going to have,” he said.