News:
March 11, 2026
The Interior Minister, Mohammed-Mubarak Muntaka, has defended the decision to conduct medical examinations for security service recruits in selected “cluster” centres, arguing that the new system significantly reduces the financial burden on applicants compared to the previous arrangement.
Speaking to the press on Wednesday, the Minister acknowledged concerns from recruits about the locations of the screenings but insisted that the current approach is a marked improvement on the past practice where all candidates were required to travel to Accra.
“At least it’s an improvement upon the past where everybody has to come to Accra,” Mr. Muntaka stated.
He explained that upon reviewing the previous system, which placed a heavy financial strain on young people from across the country, his ministry sought to bring the medical centres closer to the applicants. This led to the adoption of a “cluster system.”
According to the Minister, the country is divided into clusters for the exercise. For example, he noted, recruits from the Western and Central Regions may be directed to a specific screening location within that zone.
“So I don’t want a situation where you just use one or two places, so they adopted the cluster system. So for example, maybe Western and Central are being done in certain locations,” he explained.
While the minister acknowledged that some applicants are still unhappy with having to travel to a regional centre rather than their home district, he said the ideal scenario – conducting the medicals in every regional capital is currently not feasible.
He attributed this to a lack of necessary facilities and specialized personnel in some regional capitals.
“Our hope is that maybe by the next time we’ll be doing this, we should be able to do it in every regional capital,” Mr. Muntaka said. “Our even hope is that if it is possible to do it at every regional capital, so that nobody has to incur so much cost in time to get to the centre to do anything.”
The Minister concluded by apologizing to those who still find the travel onerous but urged them to see the progress made. He reiterated the government’s commitment to improving the process further in future recruitment exercises.
“So those who may be complaining, we are sorry, but at least it’s better than coming to Accra. But we want to even make it better next time,” he assured.
Dominic Shirimori/Ghanamps.com