It was founded on 20 July 1979 in Addis Ababa by the OAU and was relaunched by UNESCO in February 1993.
It was founded on 20 July 1979 in Addis Ababa, with the adoption of a convention by African Ministers of Information.
PANA took over the activities of the Union des agences d'informations Africaines, which had been set up in April 1963 in Tunis.
PANA is a specialised agency of the OAU and has its headquarters in Dakar, Senegal, with regional offices in Khartoum, Sudan; Lusaka, Zambia; Kinshasa, DR Congo; Lagos, Nigeria; and Tripoli, Libya.
The Seventh Ordinary Session of the Conference of African Ministers of Information took place at Sun City in October 1994.