The Council of Ministers of the Republic of Angola approved on 11 July 1997, decree no. 51/97, in an effort to provide a funding mechanism for higher education institutions in the country. The decree states that a portion of the Training Levy Funds, in the amount of 1¢ per oil barrel, will be used to finance the Catholic University. With Angola producing 300 million barrels of oil in 1998, this amounted to a large majority of the funding for the university.