Senior Partner at AB & David Africa, David Ofosu-Dorte, has urged Ghana to move past the ongoing debate about whether the country needs more lawyers or engineers and instead concentrate on aligning professional education with the nation’s development priorities.
Speaking on Accra-based Channel One TV, Mr. Ofosu-Dorte revealed that Ghana currently has nearly 9,500 active lawyers, combining the existing 8,600 with the 824 newly called to the bar.
He added that approximately 7,000 of them are based in Accra.
He noted that Ghana’s lawyer-to-population ratio is about one lawyer for every 3,600 people—a lower ratio than the United States, which has roughly four lawyers per 1,000 people, but higher than Kenya’s one to 6,200.
According to him, the debate should not center on whether there are “too many lawyers,” but rather on three crucial questions.
“First, what type of development are we looking for, and which professions do we want to produce more of? Second, how do we make it attractive for people to voluntarily go into those professions? And how do we make those professions employable?”
He cautioned that if these concerns are not addressed, Ghana risks having a growing number of professionals who remain unemployed or underutilised, regardless of how many are trained.