Threats from online recruitment networks or schemes targeting Africans, especially youth, are increasing, promising jobs and other opportunities abroad. Some of these so-called job recruiters go further, leading African youth to believe there are better opportunities abroad. But in reality, such jobs and lucrative opportunities do not exist abroad.
In this regard, the Government of Ghana has identified these networks as a threat to the safety of Ghanaian youth and the wider continent. The Government of Ghana has not relented in issuing cautions to Ghanaians and Africans to be extra careful about these online schemes/networks that advertise and promise the teeming unemployed youth better opportunities abroad, such as the Middle East, Europe, and other parts of the world.
Ghana’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, through the Minister, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, has, on several occasions and in communiqués, issued threat alerts to Ghanaians and Africans about fake online recruitment networks.
Some risks of online recruitment networks include coercing Ghanaians, especially youth and other vulnerable citizens, into conflict-prone countries, such as the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, with reported cases of thousands of Ghanaians and Africans recruited to fight for Russia and dozens killed.
There is a need to raise awareness of some of the tricks associated with such recruitment, including high wages or salaries, assurances of visas, ready-made jobs, free air tickets and accommodation abroad, among others.
Some of these recruitment agencies operate via online apps, websites, or paperwork. Preventive measures include verifying the recruiter’s identity, demanding a valid contract or appointment letter, verifying it with Embassies/High Commissions, conducting diligent research, not trusting jobs without interviews, recognizing that tourist visas are not work permit visas, and being willing to report such suspicious activities to state authorities.
In recent years, the Government of Ghana has spent significant state resources to bring some stranded Ghanaians home, and these occurrences must be prevented.
Ghana is in a better position to play a leading role in protecting Ghanaians and African people from the dangers of fake recruitment networks in the fast-changing world of technological advancement.
The boom of information online and the power of social media outlets in information dissemination, including misinformation, have contributed to several online deceptive adverts and job promises outside Africa.
Ghana, as a caring state, has utilised several multilateral platforms like the African Union (AU) and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and entered into other trilateral and bilateral agreements with other African states seeking the welfare and the safety of the people of Ghana and Africans as well as people of African descent.
It is for this reason that the government of Ghana is working hard to improve the fortunes of the country and to make life better in Ghana and boost intra-African trade and cooperation. These measures aim to make Africa better towards the continental body (AU) Agenda 2063, a reality in achieving the aspirations of “the Africa we want”.
So that Ghanaians and African people will have a safe and secure continent with prosperity. However, Ghanaians and Africans must be encouraged to stay home and contribute towards the betterment of Ghana and Africa.
By 2027, President John Mahama will assume the position of AU Chair, with the expectation that Ghana will reset the continental body (AU) agenda, in which African challenges will need African solutions. Africans do not need to migrate to other continents or countries to seek greener pastures but find them in Africa. The African Union must be a global influencer and a strategic partner or force in global affairs to challenge some superpower states’ decisions.
Government of Ghana, through strategic leadership, partnership and cooperation, worked closely with other countries in other continents, including the Caribbean, Latin America, and Asia, among others, and in March 2026, the United Nations Resolution was adopted declaring the Transatlantic Slave Trade (that is the trafficking of enslaved Africans) as the “gravest crime against humanity” and seeking reparatory justice for the crimes committed or the injustices of the past. These are some cases of good leadership in the context of promoting justice, human dignity and respect for the African people.
Hence, Ghanaian leadership and Ghana as a country cannot afford to sit aloof from the threats that some of the fake online recruitment networks pose to Ghanaians and Africans. People of African descent fall into crimes of human trafficking, irregular migration, and the associated risks and consequences to Ghanaian and Africans.
Africans need legal and decent jobs abroad, and they do not deserve to fall into deceptive online recruitment networks. National security agencies, cyber and intelligence authorities, and other security units must continue to work hard to detect, respond to, and act promptly on such online crimes or criminal syndicates. Also, continued alert warnings are good, backed by arrests and punishment.
Ghana, as a leading African country, must team up with others to break the numerous online deceptive recruitment networks through regional economic communities and continental cooperation towards achieving a “prosperous, integrated, and self-reliant Africa”.
By Prof Daniel Dramani Kipo-Sunyehzi, International Relations Scholar at LECIAD, University of Ghana
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