A Member of Parliament has said the government may have unintentionally created very high expectations among young people looking for jobs by linking the 24-hour economy policy to the ongoing recruitment into the security services.
Nana Agyei Baffour Awuah, the MP for Manhyia South and Vice Chairman of Parliament’s Subsidiary Legislative Committee, said he carefully reviewed the National Democratic Congress (NDC)’s document on the 24-hour economy but did not see any clear plan involving the security sector.
Speaking on the AM Show, he explained that the policy document did not mention security services as part of the 24-hour economy plan.
“When I looked through the document on the 24-hour economy, I did not find where the security sector fits in. The policy came after the elections, but we are now looking at the promises the NDC made to the youth in their manifesto,” he said.
The 24-hour economy was one of the major campaign promises made by the NDC before the December 2024 general elections. The idea was to encourage businesses and public institutions to operate in three shifts throughout the day and night in order to create more jobs.
However, many young people believed this policy would also lead to large recruitment into the security services.
This belief became even stronger when the government promised in its manifesto to increase the age limit for joining the security services from 25 to 35 years.
During the launch of the recruitment exercise, Interior Minister Muntaka Mohammed-Mubarak announced that university graduates could apply up to the age of 30, while craftsmen could apply up to the age of 35. He said this was meant to make the process more inclusive.
But the number of applicants showed how high the expectations were.
For example, the Ghana Immigration Service alone received about 180,000 applications, even though the service currently has only about 18,000 officers.
Across all the security services, nearly 500,000 people applied. Out of this number, only 105,000 applicants passed the aptitude test and moved to the medical screening stage. In the end, only about 5,000 people are expected to be recruited.
Mr. Awuah said former President John Mahama’s experience as a past leader made many young people believe strongly in the promises made during the campaign.
According to him, because Mahama had previously served as president, many people trusted that the promises he made were achievable.
“This is someone who has been president before. He lost power and is now saying he has been there before and knows it can be done. Naturally, young people believed him and developed high expectations,” he said.
