The Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II on Monday handed over a prime land at Adum in Kumasi to the Ghana School of Law for a construction of a campus Kumasi.
The 1.12-acre land situated in Adum and located behind the ministries area, is to enable the building of permanent legal education facility for the Ghana School of Law with the objective to expand legal education in the country.
That plan to allocate the Adum land to the Ghana School of Law had been initiated in 2003 as the GSL is currently has a permanent campus only at Makola in Accra.
The Kumasi campus will be the second one to be constructed in the country.
The initiative builds upon the foundation laid in 2010 when through the efforts of Asantehene, the Kumasi campus of the Ghana School of Law was established which is currently located at the campus of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST).
When completed, the new campus will have lecture halls, staff offices, moot court, hostel accommodation, banking facility, law firms, legal shops for all regalia for lawyers, a clinic, among others.
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 TODAY July 28, 2025, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, said legal education is deeply cherished in the Ashanti region with the former British legal jurisdiction established in the 1930s, decades after its introduction in the Gold Coast colony in the 1850s.
Even before then, he indicated that Asante royals and natives practiced law within the colony and said Asanteman continues to produce legal minds making Kumasi a beacon for legal excellence in the nation.
He touted the legal prowess of a number of Justices of the courts from the region, including Justice Henry Kwasi Prempeh, Johnson Boateng Siriboe, Dickson Kwame Afreh including the former Chief Justice Kwasi Anin-Yeboah who presided over the law with forensic precision and intellectual depth.
Legal education demand
The Asantehene said population growth has rising demand for legal education which recognised as a key route to social mobility and professional advancement, saying “this therefore called for an urgent need for a permanent well-equipped professional legal facility in Kumasi”.
“With the support key individuals and personalities, I decided to donate this parcel of land to support the flourishing future of legal education in the region and the northern part of Ghana thereby ensuring equitable access to professional legal training” he said.
He used the occasion to invite all Ghanaians, including corporate entities to support such a worthy cause, and stated “it is my wish that construction will commence in earnest to ensure the realisation of this noble objective”.
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 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.
Further, he lauded the Asantehene for his contributions to the development of the legal profession and said “Otumfuo’s unflinching support to the growth of legal fraternity has been immense”.
Legal training
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 for anyone to claim to have become a lawyer without having gone through the Ghana School of Law, 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”.
Nana Oppong, who is also the Director of Legal Education, commended successive and progressive-minded chairpersons of the General Legal Council for their efforts towards the execution of the project.
In a welcome address, the Ashanti Regional Minister, Dr Frank Amoakohene, said with the donation of the land, Otumfuo has laid a solid foundation for the nurturing legal professionals to uphold the rule of law, champion fairness to contribute to Ghana’s socio-economic advancement.
Writer’s email; [email protected].