Implementation of a regional university

The second project to which the new Secretary General of CERAO, Abbé Barthélemy Adoukonou, devoted himself is the finalization of the project for the creation of the Catholic University of West Africa (UCAO) initiated in 1995 by the Permanent Committee of CERAO, with the encouragement and support of the Italian Episcopal Conference. Thus, in February 2000, the decision to create UCAO was ratified in Conakry by the Plenary Assembly of CERAO.

Therefore, the Secretary General of CERAO applied himself to record the opening of University Units in the cities selected by the Plenary Assembly. In addition to Abidjan, which housed the ecclesiastical faculties of the Catholic Institute of West Africa (ICAO) and the Higher Institute of Communication, Bamako should receive the sciences of education, art and Culture ; Bobo-Dioulasso, agro-food; Conakry, political science; Cotonou, agronomy and electronics; Lomé, computer sciences; Yamoussoukro, health sciences; and Ziguinchor, economics and management.

The first University Unit launched in 2001 was the University Unit in Cotonou, whose new Director of the Q.I.C. Centre, Abbé Edouard Adé, was the Secretary General of the Steering Committee, and subsequently the Secretary General of the University Unit.