Ghana’s Minority Leader has called for the complete abolition of the artificial intelligence-based aptitude test used in the ongoing security services recruitment exercise, after hundreds of thousands of applicants reported being failed by a system they say asked questions bearing no visible connection to police, fire, immigration, or prisons service work.
Alexander Afenyo-Markin told Parliament on Tuesday, March 10, that his caucus had received a flood of complaints from constituents across the country about the outcome of the test, and called on the government to review the system and make the recruitment process more accessible, particularly to applicants with limited digital skills. “I am for AI. I am for IT. But you cannot suddenly call someone from Pusiga or Bunkurugu, who knows nothing about IT, and ask them to write an aptitude test using AI. If they don’t have the means, they fail,” he said.
The complaints go beyond connectivity. Multiple applicants who failed told journalists and social media followers that the test contained questions they could not link to any security service function. One female candidate, speaking anonymously to a news outlet, described encountering what she called “Japanese questions” a colloquial expression in Ghana for questions that appear completely foreign or irrelevant to the task at hand. “Some of the questions weren’t linked to the security service,” she said.
The official test syllabus published by the Ministry of Interior listed four subject areas: English language, mathematics, logical reasoning, and general knowledge. Category B and C applicants answered 60 questions, while Category A applicants answered 30. The pass mark was set at 65 percent. The Ministry has not explained to failed candidates which category of questions they underperformed in, leaving applicants with no way to assess whether the test itself was appropriately calibrated for security service recruitment or whether their own preparation was inadequate.
Interior Minister Muntaka Mohammed-Mubarak has been summoned to appear before Parliament to address the concerns, following a disclosure by Majority Chief Whip Rockson-Nelson Dafeamekpor that cross-party pressure had made the ministerial appearance unavoidable.
The “foreign questions” debate lands at an uncomfortable moment for the government. The recruitment exercise was specifically designed to replace the chaotic physical aptitude tests of previous cycles, one of which triggered a deadly stampede at El-Wak Stadium. The shift to an online, AI-proctored format was presented as a modernisation achievement. The volume and consistency of complaints now threaten to reframe it as a barrier that systematically excluded applicants from rural communities and low-income households who sat the test at internet cafes on mobile data.
Medical fees for those who passed and must now attend screening are set at GH¢1,600 for male candidates and GH¢1,650 for female candidates, costs that fall entirely on the applicants. For the more than 400,000 who received a “Disqualified” status and are now walking away from the process, the money spent on documents, application forms, and test access leaves no avenue for reimbursement under the current framework a gap that opposition lawmakers say the government must address.
