Getting to the end the year 2000, the Danish Government through DANIDA donated a complete VSAT connection to the University of Ghana with the understanding that a Research Education Network (REN) will be formed in Ghana,  involving the following:-

1. University of Ghana,
2. Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology,
3. University of Cape Coast,
4. The then University College of Education of Winneba, and now the University of  Education Winneba,
5. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, Accra.

This was to enable the mentioned institutions to have a common connection to the Internet. The speed of connection at that time was at 128kbps uplink and 512kbps downlink.

REN started operation in April 2001 and was officially launched on October 3, 2001.

REN did not last long due to various problems. The most important being that, most of the member institutions did not have viable Campus Network (CAN) and also the physical interconnectivity was poorly maintained.

In 2003 this network alliance finally collapsed and each of the institutions proceeded to acquire their own VSATs.

The Vice-Chancellors of Ghana, realizing that it was vital to have a Research and Education Network, if there had to be  meaningful collaboration amongst the Universities, with all the benefits that go with the operation of such a network, agreed by consensus in 2004, to set up a Task force/working group  to prepare new grounds with specific commitments and modalities for the setting up  of a new NREN that will grow with time.

The process had been slow. However with the pre-WISS Tunis meeting convened by AAU, followed by the AfGNOG , AfriNIC and AAU MoU in May 2006, formally signed in August 2006, the need for the early formation of an NREN became more urgent.

Following further more pressure when the AAU workshop on NRENs was announced for November 14- 16, 2006, a working group with membership from nearly all the public Institutions under the umbrella of VCG quickly assembled during a workshop on Bandwidth Management Optimisation workshop on consultations with  the then Chairman of VCG, Professor Anamoah-Mensah.

The membership of this working Group was as follows:-

1. Mumuni. Dakubu,  UG.  Chairman and local Resource person

2. K. Boateng, KNUST.

3. Emmanuel Owusu-Oware, UG.

4. Daniel Obuobi, UCC.

5. John Edumadze, UCC.

6 James Williams, UEW

7. Hubert Asior, UEW

8. Duncan Greaves, TENET (South Africa), a Resource person from TENET

The aim of the  Working Group was to formulate a working document for the creation of NREN in Ghana and to place such a document before the Vice-Chancellors Ghana for further discussion and adoption.

The work group proceeded to put together a document constituting a Memorandum of Understanding for the formation of an NREN for Ghana.