By Mabinty M. Kamara
In a bid to support the government of Sierra Leone to successfully conduct the proposed 2020 mid-term population and housing census, the Mano River Union (MRU) secretariat in Freetown has presented one HP Design jet post script e-printer designed to produce high quality maps.
During the presentation of the printer to the Minister of Planning and Economic Development on Monday 31st of August 2020, the Secretary General of MRU, Medina Wesseh noted that the gesture was meant to be a response to the pronouncement made by President Julius Maada Bio for support towards the conduct of the Medium Term National Census.
She said that the machine will help Statistics Sierra Leone print out necessary maps needed to conduct the census as it produces high quality graphics, noting that the papers used to produce the maps can be found in country and that it can also be repaired in country when necessary.
“We realized that we have a machine here which was donated to us by a partner for a number of years. It was meant for a particular project, but since we came in, it has been made dormant, so when I heard that you want to undertake this national exercise, as part of the responsibility to assist government, we thought that it will be appropriate to utilize it. Anything that you want to do with your map this machine will be able to do that. So we believe that this is small but you will be in best position to use it,” she stated at the presentation ceremony.
In his statement, the Minister of Planning and Economic Development, Dr. Francis Kaikai, noted that the gesture came at the right time when the country was preparing for a mid-term national census. He noted that by the looks of the quality of the map that’s produced by the machine, he could confirm that the printer was a very good one.
In an apparent response to concerns around the conduct of the census five years after the last one, Dr Kaikai said there was no law that fixed a census to ten years, adding that it was just a ploy by donor partners to prevent the frequent request for fund to conduct census.
He however added that there were many countries around the world, especially in developed countries, that cared very little about conducting national censuses. This, he said, was because they have systems in place to collect data at all times even in small hamlets, from birth to death. That way, he added, they have had the correct data in place always.
The Minister went on to note that with the digital growth in the country, Sierra Leone was also heading in that direction.
“I am sure with this digital age, we are also going to get rid of census. So this issue of census would not be necessary. So ten years really is not in our books, or anywhere. You can do census at any time, so long as you have the resources, but if you have to go to donors, then they impose some of these laws.
“So we are doing a mid-term census because a lot has happened over the past five years. Things have changed. We now have the Medium Term National Development Plan, we are taking that around the country, we need to monitor the database. And also one of the problems we had with the current census data [is that] there are about 60% of localities in Sierra Leone that do not have any specific data, so if you want specific data on specific villages, town…it will not be available because they gave the data by enumeration area, so we are hoping to correct all of that. And so mapping the outcome now would be interesting. It is possible that with this kind of machine it will be able to print that very nicely for people to see very clearly.”
Dr. Kaikai, while applauding the MRU, requested for the secretariat to provide some technical assistance in the operation of the machine, so that those who will eventually be operating it will be in a better position to do so.
Apart from printing out maps, the machine can print any other document, but only on paper and not on plastic materials.
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