On Monday, the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, handed over a prime piece of land at Adum in Kumasi to the Ghana School of Law for the construction of a new campus. The 1.12-acre site, located behind the ministries area, aims to facilitate the development of a permanent legal education facility, thereby expanding legal education in the country.
The initiative to allocate this land to the Ghana School of Law began in 2003, as the school currently only has a permanent campus at Makola in Accra. The Kumasi campus will be the second in the country. This project builds upon the groundwork laid in 2010, when, through the efforts of the Asantehene, the Kumasi campus of the Ghana School of Law was established, currently situated on the campus of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST).
Once completed, the new campus will feature lecture halls, staff offices, a moot court, hostel accommodation, a banking facility, law firms, legal shops for lawyers’ regalia, and a clinic, among other amenities.
Legal education
In a speech delivered on his behalf by the Paramount Chief of the Sampa Traditional Area, Nana Samgba Gyafla II, at the official handing over of the site on Monday [July 28, 2025], Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, said legal education is deeply cherished in the Ashanti Region.
Next generation
The acting Chief Justice, Justice Paul Baffoe-Bonnie, said for decades, the Kumasi campus has served as a branch of the Ghana School of Law at the KNUST and stated that the handing over of the land would culminate in the building of a modern campus to enhance legal education.
He said “this campus will provide the next generation of lawyers with greater opportunities for practical, while keeping them close to the courts where justice is administered” and added that it is a milestone not only for Kumasi but for Ghana as whole.
He added that the campus would ensure that professional legal education remains accessible and relevant across the country and stated that the facility would not only be brick and mortar but would represent collective aspirations for a Ghana governed by the rule of law.
While calling on all stakeholders including faculty, bar, the bench, public and private sector partners to work together for the full realisation of the project, he said the campus would be a place where future lawyers would be imbibed with the values of integrity, service and community leadership.
The Director of the Ghana Law School, Nana Barima Yaw Kodie Oppong, said even after people had successfully completed the LLB programme at KNUST, they were compelled to move to Accra for professional law programmes.
Indeed, he said professional legal training became so much attached to Makola that it became an abomination for anyone to claim to have become a lawyer without having gone through the Ghana School of Law at Makola.
To address it, he said approval was secured in 2010 leading to the establishment of the Kumasi campus at KNUST, saying “this year is the 15th anniversary of the realisation of this noble objective”.
Writer’s email; gilbert.agbey@graphic.com.gh
