The Ghana Police Service has raked in a whopping GH¢3.16 million from the sale of its recruitment forms at the Ghana Commercial Bank (GCB) for the first three days, exposing the extent of the dire unemployment situation.
The purchase of the forms, which began last Wednesday, May 11, has witnessed the sale of over 31,600 of them to people desirous of being recruited into the Service across the country. Each of the forms costs GH¢100.
Yesterday alone, the bank is believed to have sold over 14,362 of the online codes (slots) for the purchase of the forms to prospective recruits.
Currently, there are about 200,000 unemployed graduates in the country and the figure is likely to rise in the coming years if adequate measures are not put in place to forestall the phenomenon.
According to latest World Bank figures, youth unemployment stands at nearly 50 percent, with a senior government appointee urging the unemployed graduates to take to stone cracking and grass cutting to feed animals.
It is believed that government’s inability to provide jobs for the youth has resulted in many Ghanaians rushing to buy police forms, hoping to be gainfully employed.
Even though the ongoing exercise is intended for people with a minimum qualification of senior high school certificate, indications are that many university graduates have decided to apply for the available slots in the police using their secondary school certificates instead of the university degrees, which could have earned them higher salaries and positions, but for the fact that there are no ready jobs on the market.
Decision
The Police Service, this year, decided to resort to electronic means of receiving applications as part of efforts to reduce the involvement of intermediaries and scammers. . Previous police recruitments had been marred by scams, with one leading to the interdiction of the Director General of Human Resource, COP Patrick Timbillah, in 2015.
With this year’s recruitment, applicants are to purchase vouchers at the GCB branches scattered across the country at the cost of GHȻ100 and then fill out their details online on the police website.
GCB Challenge
The bank encountered a large number of prospective recruits at its branches on the first day, which affected the smooth flow of the sale.
The system was said to have encountered some technical challenges which led to long queues forming at the various branches.
It later resolved the technical problem and resumed the sale of the vouchers to the applicants.
A statement indicated, “The bank is currently selling the recruitment forms at all its branches after resolving challenges that slowed down the sale of the forms on the first day, Wednesday, 11th May, 2016. GCB experienced a large number of prospective recruits at its branches on the first day, which affected the smooth flow of the sale.”
The bank, therefore, assured prospective recruits of its capacity to contain the situation and to continue to provide excellent service throughout the three-week period slated for the sale of the forms.
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