Individuals who will join Ghana’s public sector will undergo strict and mandatory drug tests in the coming days.

At a ceremony to commission a newly constructed six-unit classroom block at Sakafiya Islamic Senior High School on Friday, August 28, the Minister for the Interior, Mohammed Mubarak Muntaka, explained that the upcoming policy forms part of the government's efforts to minimize the use of drugs following startling revelations from this year’s security services recruitment exercise.

He added that the Information Paper for Cabinet on the proposed policy is almost ready and it would be launched in the coming days.

He added, “Very soon, the Ministry of the Interior will be taking an Information Paper to Cabinet, and one of the things that we are going to do is to ensure that nobody gets into public service until we do a drug test on you”.

More than 6,000 of the over 100,000 applicants who took part in the medical screening stage of the ongoing security services recruitment failed the exercise.

Speaking to the media on Saturday, May 23, the Muntaka noted that factors such as drug use and mental health conditions contributed to their disqualification.

He explained that more than 4,000 applicants failed the drug tests, and about 2,000 others were flagged for mental health issues.

“We have over 100,000 people who went through the medicals. Because of the large numbers, and because of what we have observed within the services, we introduced additional checks including mental health assessments and drug tests. Interestingly, over 4,000 people failed the drug test, and we have over 2,000 who also failed due to mental health conditions,” he said.

This year’s medical exercise included drug testing and mental health assessments, aside the usual the usual physical and laboratory checks. The recruitment exercises into the Ghana Police Service, Ghana Prisons Service, Ghana National Fire Service, and the Ghana Immigration Service began in November, 2025.