- 5 million for students who have won a competition of excellence
- Meeting between learners and business owners
- 15 activities on the program
A day of double solemnity this May 20, 2023 at the University of African Unity, former African Institute of Management (IAM). A double solemnity because on this day, the university launches the commemorative activities of its 15th anniversary of creation. And this, at the same time when, on the whole of the territory of Burkina Faso and on the decision of the highest authorities of the country, a national day of fasting and prayers is observed by the populations. This is also why at the start of the ceremony to launch the commemorative activities, a symbolic prayer session was jointly led by an imam and a Christian sister. Not better either to magnify this unity of which the university is in name.
To return to the ceremony, it must be said that its brilliance was enhanced by the presence of personalities from here and elsewhere. These include, among others, the Minister of Sports, Youth and Vocational Training, Boubacar Sawadogo; the boss of Coris Bank, Idrissa Nassa or the head of Gaou production, Salif Traoré alias A’Salfo of the famous Ivorian musical group, Magic system. Without forgetting an important mobilization of students; former students and school staff.
The AU Crystal Wedding celebration runs from May to November 2023. The program is no less enticing with 15 planned activities. Among these activities is a competition of excellence which has already brought together several schoolchildren from different establishments in the city of Ouagadougou. It was a question, according to the DG of the AU, Alioune Benga, of putting in competition pupils or groups of pupils of different series (A4; C, D and G2) in various disciplines, namely philosophy, mathematics, accounting and general culture. This is how the pupil Moïse Karfo from the St Jean-Baptiste de la Salle college was awarded, for example, a check for 500,000 CFA francs, a laptop computer and a motorcycle, while a half- ten students from Collège Horizon international, as part of the competing groups, will share the prize pool of 5 million CFA francs.
Apart from the competition of excellence, the program of activities provides in particular: an entrepreneurship competition with a prize pool of 15 million FCFA at stake; a lunch with role models; a donation of food to an orphanage; training in agribusiness, …
15 years of excellence in training
Through the activities of this crystal jubilee, the University of African Unity is part of a dynamic search for excellence that has always characterized it. As a reminder, the adventure began in 2007, when the African Institute of Management (IAM) was brought to the baptismal font before expanding to become the AU in 2020. Then, achievements were made during these 15 years. With an initial enrollment of 211 students, the AU welcomes, for example, for the academic year 2022-2023 approximately 1,600 students in at least 25 courses, all delivering diplomas recognized by the African and Malagasy Council for Higher Education. And in total, nearly 17,000 learners of around thirty nationalities have gone through it.
In fifteen years, the UA has also invested in making entrepreneurship a reality for its students, hence its credo “learning to undertake”. This is also why a fund of 100 million CFA francs has been set up to support students with the best projects. And if the AU has a 90% professional integration rate, it is not the result of chance, according to the PCA, Ahmed Diallo, who welcomes the development of training programs in many areas in collaboration with the best universities, teachers and entrepreneurs around the world.
Sponsor of the ceremony to launch the commemorative activities, the minister in charge of youth, Boubacar Sawadogo hailed “15 years of audacity and creativity in the service of society”. But for him, “it’s time to draw new ambitions for the future of the university, in a context of global academic and scientific competition which stimulates as much as it challenges and constantly forces us to renew ourselves”. For his part, the PCA, Ahmed Diallo assured that the AU will “continue to innovate, improve the quality of education and training programs” and that the ambition is to work to strengthen a commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion in order to “create a university environment where each of our students feels valued”.
