Mahama directs security services recruitment expansion from 20,000 to 40,000

President John Dramani Mahama has directed that security services recruitment be increased to 40,000 over the next four years.

In a press release dated Monday, March 16, 2026, the Presidency said President Mahama held a high-level meeting with Heads of Security Agencies, the Minister for the Interior, and the Acting Minister for Defence to review the ongoing recruitment process.

Following a briefing on the exercise, the President instructed that the number of men and women to be recruited across the Ghana Police Service, Prisons Service, Immigration Service, Fire Service, and Narcotics Control Commission be increased from 20,000 to 40,000 over a four-year period. He also directed the Heads of the Security Agencies to ensure transparency and fairness in the recruitment process.

Present at the meeting were the Chief of Staff, Secretary to the President, Senior Presidential Advisor on Governmental Affairs, National Security Coordinator, Inspector General of Police, Director Generals of Prisons and Fire Services, Comptroller-General of the Ghana Immigration Service, and the Director General of the Narcotics Control Commission.

Earlier, Interior Minister Mubarak Mohammed Muntaka announced that only 5,000 applicants would be recruited in the first phase, citing fiscal limitations. Speaking at a press conference in Parliament on Wednesday, he 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 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.”

He also emphasized the government’s goal to create jobs for youth across sectors:

“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.”

The press release was issued and signed by Felix Kwakye Ofosu, Member of Parliament and Spokesperson to the President.