President Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema inaugurated the new pedagogical pole of the Centre de Recherche et d’Innovation (CTRI) and the renovated Auditorium Pierre-Louis Agondjo Okawé at the Université Omar Bongo Ondimba (UOBO) in Libreville, Gabon, on 14 September 2026.
The ceremony was part of a series of inaugurations aimed at modernising university infrastructure. Upon arrival, the President was welcomed by the deans of the university’s faculties and then toured the newly built CTRI complex.
The CTRI pedagogical pole, financed entirely by the Gabonese state, features eight lecture halls, ten administrative offices, a multimedia room, a recording studio that meets CAMES standards, and a fully equipped multipurpose hall. It also includes student life spaces and a water treatment unit. Designed for rotational use, the complex can accommodate more than 2,400 students per day.
In addition to the CTRI, the President opened the refurbished auditorium, which had been closed for nearly thirty years. The 1,800‑square‑meter venue has been renamed Auditorium Pierre-Louis Agondjo Okawé in honour of the former dean of the Faculty of Law and Economics and former president of the Gabonese Bar Association. The main hall now seats between 470 and 510 people and is complemented by a meeting room, gender‑separated restrooms, technical rooms, two waiting areas, two journalist booths, a sound and video control room, a VIP area, a VIP restroom, a cocktail bar, and a presidential lounge.
During the event, a documentary film was shown to highlight the state’s investments in higher education, including the restoration, modernisation, restructuring, and equipping of university facilities. The film also covered improvements to student living conditions and the expansion of university capacity, with an additional 3,500 places planned for UOBO, USS, CUSS, and USTM.
President Nguema also visited the renovated rectorate, music spaces, and dormitories before speaking with students at the university restaurant about their living and study conditions. He later toured the construction site of the future Boulevard de la Transition, a more than three‑kilometre road intended to improve traffic flow in the western part of Libreville.
The inauguration underscores the President’s commitment to using higher education as a catalyst for economic and social transformation, aiming to build a new generation of skilled professionals capable of driving Gabon’s development.
{“relevant”:true,”title”:”Inauguration of new pedagogical pole and auditorium at UOBO”,”public_summary”:”President Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema inaugurated the CTRI pedagogical pole and the renovated Auditorium Pierre-Louis Agondjo Okawé at the Université Omar Bongo Ondimba in Libreville, Gabon, as part of a broader university modernization effort.”,”
Article and image source: gabonews.com