By Mabinty M. Kamara
Statistics Sierra Leone, the body responsible for the collection of national data has announced the postponement of the proposed first ever 2020 national mid-term population and hosing census which was scheduled for April 19 this year.
This is the second time that the census has been postponed to a later date since President Julius Maada Bio proclaimed it in July 2020.
The first postponement from the initial December 4th date according to officials of statistics Sierra Leone 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 census.
However, according to a press statement from Stats SL, the current postponement is due to delay in receipt of the 20,000 electronic tablets issued by the President of Kenya Uhuru Kenyatta which is expected to be used for the conduct of the census.
“Stats SL is therefore informing the public that the delay in the shipment of the 20,000(twenty thousand) from Kenya to Sierra Leone, has affected the timelines in the conduct of the census. Therefore enumeration of the population slated for the 19th April 2021, can no longer hold,” he said.
However, according to the statement, other preparation works for the exercise have been on-going including the training of enumerators, electronic cartographic mapping using satellite imagery and an ‘EA’ pad for demarcation of enumeration areas is in progress.
The president back then at the declaration of the census said the census will help his government plan properly, ensure equitable distribution of resources and foster economic and social development.
The declaration however raised eye browse. It critics questioned the relevance of the process and the prevailing pandemic in the world citing the fact that it was only five years after the last census was done.
Sierra Leone until now had conducted census every ten years.
Officials of Stats.SL and the government said a mid-term census was necessary to rectify some anomalies occasioned by the last census.
The government then committed 14 billion Leones to facilitate the process and it’s been supported financially by the World Bank and the United Nations.
No new date has been announced for the conduct of the exercise but the statement noted that it will be announced soon.
Copyright © 2021 Politico Online (19/04/21)
