By Politico staff writer
The 10th of December this year has been declared by President Julius Maada Bio as the new date for start of the proposed mid-term Housing and Population Census which according to officials at Statistics Sierra Leone, will last for two weeks.
Apart from being the first digital census to take place in Sierra Leone, it will also be the first mid-term exercise to be conducted in the country, which Statistics officials say is to correct errors detected in the last headcount of 2015 . Sierra Leone until now had conducted a census every ten years.
This is the third time that the census had to been postponed to a later date since President Bio first proclaimed it in July 2020.
The first postponement from the initial 4th December 2020 date, according to officials, was due to the disruption of the coronavirus disease which affected the movement of high level technical personnel; and the procurement of digital materials required for the programme.
However, according to a press statement from Stats SL, the second postponement to April 19 this year was due to delay in receipt of the 20,000 electronic tablets issued by the President of Kenya Uhuru Kenyatta that are to be used for the data collection.
However, according to the statement, other preparation works for the exercise have been on-going including the training of enumerators. Also personnel training on electronic cartographic mapping using satellite imagery and an ‘EA’ pad for demarcation of enumeration areas are in progress.
The Communications Director for Statistics Sierra Leone ,Samuel Ansumana told Politico that the electronic gadgets and human resources needed for the conduct of the census on the new proposed date of 10th December, are all set
The president back then at the declaration of the census said it will help his government plan properly, ensure equitable distribution of resources and foster economic and social development.
The declaration however raised eyebrows. Its critics questioned the relevance of the process and the prevailing pandemic in the world citing the fact that it was only six years after the last census was done.
The government has committed 14 billion Leones to facilitate the process and it’s been supported financially by the World Bank and the United Nations.
Copyright © Politico Online 29/11/21
