Development economist Fred Dzanku has said the intense competition for security service jobs in Ghana reflects deeper structural weaknesses in the economy, rather than being simply a recruitment issue.
Speaking on Thursday, 12 March, Prof Dzanku highlighted the massive gap between the number of applicants and the available positions.
“It’s pathetic, to say the least,” he said. “There’s a general problem of youth unemployment across Africa, and Ghana is no exception. We need to step back and look at the bigger picture.”
He criticised what he described as the country’s tendency to respond only when problems become urgent, rather than addressing their root causes.
“I always say that we like to fight fire as a country. We see a problem, talk about it briefly, and then go back to sleep,” he added.
Using economic data to illustrate the challenge, Prof Dzanku noted that manufacturing, which should be a primary driver of youth employment, contributes very little to Ghana’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
“Our manufacturing value-added share of GDP should be rising because that is where you expect jobs for youth to come from. Right now, it’s less than 10%. So where are the jobs going to come from? Not from other sectors to the same extent as manufacturing,” he explained.
Prof Dzanku linked these economic realities to the current recruitment into Ghana’s security services, where Interior Minister Muntaka Mohammed-Mubarak announced that only 5,000 applicants would be recruited in the first phase due to fiscal constraints.
“What we are seeing—5,000 jobs and 500,000 people chasing them—is a clear reflection of how our economy is structured,” he said. “The real problem is that we are not generating jobs in the sectors that should be creating employment, let alone ensuring the quality of the jobs that are available.”
The Interior Minister had earlier explained in Parliament that recruitment into the Ghana Police Service, Ghana Prisons Service, Ghana Immigration Service, and the Ghana National Fire Service is primarily based on body selection and documentation, with the number of vacancies limited by fiscal realities.