WACREN is the West and Central African Research and Education Network.  Incubation of the regional network started at AfNOG 2006 and at the Regional Workshop on Research and Education Networks organised by the Association of African Universities (AAU) in Accra in November 2006. The need to build organizational and technical capacity within constituent NREN countries was identified as a requirement for a viable network.

A regional consultative meeting held in November 2009 as a pre-event to the Open Access Conference 2009. The AAU was  given the mandate to identify a Task Team to coordinate activities of working groups to produce documents for the establishment of the RREN .

Following the meeting of representatives of 11 countries in West Africa and Central Africa (Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, Gabon, Ghana, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Togo) in initiative of Research and Education Networking Unit (RENU) of the Association of African Universities (AAU), it was taken to the establishment of the first Board of Directors of WACREN, composed of nine (9 ) members and presided by Professor Tiemoman KONE.