The Upper East Regional Minister has lamented the low number of legal professionals in the five regions of the north.

According to Stephen Yakubu, only 39 lawyers are currently practising in these areas of the country.

He made the revelation at the 2021 Ghana Bar Conference underway at Bolgatanga in the Upper East Region.

Addressing the gathering on Monday, September 13, Mr Yakubu further explained that this number is woefully inadequate in serving the growing populace.

This figure, he further explained, is even lower in the Upper East Region where the Minister superintends.

"It, therefore, comes as very worrying, reports that only 14 licensed lawyers are practising in the region, thus serving a population of 1.3 million," he said.

He said this situation has the potential to impede the region's ambition to become a tourism hub as they invite private sector participation into the area.

Mr Yakubu reiterated that the development is also affecting the residents' effort to safeguard their rights.

He, however, called on government, Ghana Bar Association and other stakeholders, to increase investment in legal education in the five regions up north.

President Akufo-Addo recently cut the sod for the implementation of the proposed Law Village Project in Accra.

While acknowledging the importance of this move, the Upper East Regional Minister also called for citing a campus in northern Ghana to produce more professionals in the legal field.

The GBA conference will serve as a forum to review activities of the Bar for the past three years and plan for the next three years.

This year's conference is on the theme, ‘Ensuring an increase in revenue mobilisation through taxation for the purpose of accelerated national development: The role of the lawyer'.

President Akufo-Addo, the Attorney-General, Godfred Dame, Chief Justice Kwasi Anin-Yeboah and the GBA President, Anthony Forson Jr, are among the dignitaries in attendance.