The Minister for Defence, Lt. Gen. John Henry Smith, who presented the figures to Parliament yesterday, gave the regional representation as 28 from Upper East, 43 from Upper West, 64 from Northern Region with the Brong-Ahafo and Central Regions having 85 each.
Others are 117 for Volta, Eastern, 131, Western, 141, Ashanti, 150 and Greater Accra Region, 370. The Minister of Defence was answering a question from Stephen Yakubu, Member of Parliament (MP) for Binduri, who sought to find out the number of people recruited into the Ghana Armed Forces between 2009 and now, and how many in each region.
According to Gen. Smith, there was no recruitment exercise into GAF in 2009 because the recruitment exercise which was initiated in 2008 had to be called off because of accommodation challenges.
Talking about the year 2011, the Defence Minister said the GAF was given a quota of 1,600, with the Army, Navy and Air Force expected to train 900, 400 and 300 recruits respectively.
He said following advertisements in the media and subsequent applications, the final medical examinations for prospective candidates were being conducted in two batches at the 37 Military Hospital.
Gen. Smith said medical exam for the first batch started in February and was expected to be completed by June 2011 so that successful candidates would report for training in July.
The second batch, he indicated, would start their medical exams in September and end in November for training to start in January 2012.
The Minister told Parliament that the GAF was mindful of the constitutional provisions on the need to have an institution representing “our national character, recruit personnel from all the ten regions without sacrificing professionalism, proficiency, efficiency and merit”.
According to him, the GAF would always give equal opportunities to all qualified Ghanaians irrespective of gender, religion or ethnic origin, pointing out that gender and regional balance were important but “only persons with good character, the required education/professional qualification and medically fit by the GAF standards are recruited”.
Also answering a question from Albert Kwasi Zigah, MP for Ketu South, who sought to find out the plans the Ministry had made to relocate the shooting range along the La-Nungua road, Gen. Smith said the GAF was at the moment engaged in a comprehensive review of its lands and land use policy.
Not giving a definite answering regarding the relocation of the shooting range, the Minister lamented that all military lands in the country were under threat of encroachment including the Teshie shooting range which had reduced from 165.503 acres in 1976 to 67.67 acres presently.
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