Ghana’s new Legal Education Act 2026 seeks to expand access to legal training while strengthening quality and ethical standards, according to Kenneth Agyemang Attafuah, dean of Central Law School.

Speaking on the Asaase Breakfast Show on Tuesday (10 June), Attafuah said parliament introduced the reforms to address long-standing restrictions in legal education and the limited number of trained lawyers in the country.

“Parliament believes that the country needs a lot more lawyers — and more importantly, very qualified, competent and ethical lawyers,” he said.

He described the previous system — centred heavily on the Ghana School of Law — as “too restrictive,” with fragmented regulation and limited access for qualified law graduates.

The new law, Act 1170, introduces a decentralised model that allows accredited universities to provide professional legal training, subject to strict regulatory oversight.

Institutions must undergo a rigorous accreditation process, beginning with a provisional licence and followed by periodic assessments to ensure compliance with national standards.

The reforms also establish a new Council on Legal Education and Training to work alongside the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC) to regulate curriculum, accreditation and quality assurance.

Attafuah said the broader objective is to align legal education with national development needs.

“This country needs a lot more lawyers than you can begin to imagine,” he added.