Franklin Cudjoe, the Founding President of IMANI Africa, has urged the government to implement “drastic measures” to combat Ghana’s rising unemployment following a massive surge in applications for the country’s security services.
Mr. Cudjoe’s remarks come in response to data showing that approximately 500,000 citizens applied for fewer than 40,000 available slots across various security agencies. He warned that the overwhelming preference for public sector roles suggests a desire for job security rather than economic productivity.
“We need to fix this,” Cudjoe stated. “It is not healthy for a country when many of its young and able citizens want to apply for public sector jobs, apparently because they are safe jobs and not necessarily productive.”
The scale of the crisis was highlighted on Wednesday, March 11, by Interior Minister Alhaji Mohammed Muntaka Mubarak. Speaking to journalists after parliamentary proceedings, the Minister revealed that while over 105,000 applicants successfully moved to the medical screening stage, the state can only accommodate 5,000 recruits this year.
“We still have 105,000 who have qualified for medicals. In reality, the total number we can take after medicals is 5,000, so we still face a huge challenge,” the Minister explained.
In his statement, Mr. Cudjoe also criticized the evolution of Ghana’s educational framework. He argued that the conversion of polytechnics into tertiary institutions has diluted their original purpose: providing the technical and vocational skills necessary for industrial growth.
“It is sad that we turned our polytechnic institutions into tertiary-level institutions without emphasising that they remain true to their middle-level capability of producing advanced vocational and technical skills critically needed for the country,” Cudjoe noted.
He further observed that these institutions now attract more students focused on “grammar and management studies” rather than technical manpower. To rectify this, the IMANI boss proposed a shift in fiscal policy.
“We must reverse this, and I would go as far as suggesting that public education budgets should proportionally favour technical and vocational education,” he added.
Addressing the recruitment process itself, Mr. Cudjoe suggested that initial application phases should be free of charge to alleviate the financial burden on the unemployed. He proposed that only those who pass the preliminary scrutiny should be required to pay a “reasonable fee” for subsequent stages.
“500,000 applications for less than 40,000 slots show the scale of unemployment and underemployment in the country,” he concluded.