April 19, 2021
By: James Kamara-Manneh
The mid-term census that was slated for the 19th April, 2021 has been put off indefinitely by Statistic Sierra Leone due to the fact that the 20,000 tablets identified for the process have delayed and yet to be in the country from Kenya.
It has been revealed that President of Kenya, Uhuru Kenyatta had handed over to the Sierra Leone High Commissioner on the 7th April, 2021 the said tablets but are yet to arrive in the country.
According to the press released from Stats S.L dated 16th April, due to the delay in the shipment of the 20,000 electronic tablets from the Kenya to Sierra Leone it has affected the conduct of the census process and the enumeration of the population will no longer hold.
Statistic S.L is therefore calling on the citizens to be rest assured of transparent, trust, inclusiveness and credibility in all its undertaking.
On the contrary, the preparatory work, including the electronic cartographic mapping using satellite imagery and an EA Pad application for demarcation of Enumeration is ongoing.
It can be recalled that for the government to properly plan, ensure equitable distribution of resources, and foster economic and social development, on the 21st July, 2020, President Bio proclaimed a 2020 Mid-Term Population and Housing Census (MTPHC) to be conducted in the country.
After several efforts to reach the Public Relations officer of Statistics Sierra Leone to further speak to the issue did not yield desired result.
