News:
March 12, 2026
The Minority Caucus in Parliament has taken a swipe at the government over the ongoing recruitment exercise into the country’s security services, describing it as the “biggest recruitment scam” in recent history.
Addressing the press on Thursday, the Ranking on the Defense and Interior Committee, Ntim Fordjour alleged that the process has been structured to defraud over half a million unemployed Ghanaian youth, comparing it to a criminal Ponzi scheme.
As such, the Minority is demanding an urgent parliamentary probe and the immediate reimbursement of application fees to all affected applicants.
According to the Minority, the controversy stems from a major campaign promise made by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the lead-up to the 2024 elections. In response to the government’s call in 2025, over 506,000 hopeful young Ghanaians submitted applications to join the Ghana Police Service, Immigration Service, National Fire Service, and Prisons Service. The Caution stated that these young men and women were filled with hope and patriotism, believing they were pursuing a genuine opportunity for dignified livelihoods.
However, the situation took a dramatic turn during a press conference held by the Minister for Interior yesterday. The Minister revealed that, from the massive pool of applicants, the government intends to recruit only 5,000 personnel. The Minority Caucus expressed shock at this revelation, stating that it has left hundreds of thousands of applicants feeling devastated and exploited. They questioned why the government would encourage over 506,000 applications if the available slots were only 5,000.
The Caucus further criticized a recent policy shift that increased the recruitment age limit to 35 years, which they argue was a deliberate ploy to trap more unemployed youth into applying. They described the decision as reckless and misguided, intended to create a false impression of expanded financial clearance. “This move significantly expanded the applicant pool and heightened expectations among thousands of desperate but qualified young people,” the statement read.
Adding to the financial burden on applicants, the Minority highlighted that the government collected a GHC220 application fee from each of the 506,000 applicants, accumulating a staggering total of GHC111,320,000. They alleged that the subsequent internet-based aptitude test was plagued with challenges designed to frustrate and disqualify candidates. Many applicants, they claimed, faced connectivity issues and were timed out minutes into the test, undermining any claim of a merit-based system.
In light of these grievances, the Minority Caucus, echoing earlier calls by Minority Leader Osahen Afenyo-Markin, is demanding two urgent actions:
First, they are calling for an independent bipartisan parliamentary probe into the centralized recruitment process.
Second, they insist that the government must refund the GHC220 application fee to every applicant disqualified by what they term a “questionable and exploitative process.”
Dominic Shirimori/Ghanamps.com