diff --git a/meta-phosphor/recipes-connectivity/openssh/openssh_%.bbappend b/meta-phosphor/recipes-connectivity/openssh/openssh_%.bbappend
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..72d59f6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/meta-phosphor/recipes-connectivity/openssh/openssh_%.bbappend
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+# Don't create an empty openssh-dev package. That would pull in openssh-sshd
+# even it we are only depending on openssh-sftp, which causes conflicts
+# with dropbear
+ALLOW_EMPTY:${PN}-dev = "0"