The President’s decision to commit 14 Billion Leones to conduct the Mid-Term Population and Housing Census in order to help the country plan properly, ensure equitable distribution of resources and foster economic and social development is a welcoming idea to many objective minds, owing to the fact that the mid-term census will inform and guide the implementation of various development programmes including the 2019-2023 Medium Term National Development Plan (MTND) and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s).it will also help in showing the progress made and challenges to be addressed in the overall development of the country.
Besides, the mid-term census will help Statistics Sierra Leone to update and take stock of significant gaps in the 2015 Population and Housing Census and provide reliable baseline data to assess the impact of the government key developments interventions in respect of the Medium Term National Development Plans (MTNDP) and the United Nations 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.
However it is base on the significance attached to the Mid-Term Census that “The World Bank, the United Nations Population Fund and other partners have made significant funding commitments and demonstrated strong interest in supporting this important national exercise.
In explaining the relevance of the Mid –Term Census Professor Sankoh said the Mid-Term Huosing and Population Census which has been scheduled to start on the 4th of December this year, seeks to ensure proper allocation of resources for the implementation of the Medium Term Development Plan. He staed that president Bio decided to approve the Census as was advised because Statistics Sierra Leone could not provide accurate population data for type three localities, amounting to 59% nationwide as he noted that advance technological tools such as the computer assisted data collection software will be used in the conduct of the Mid-Term Census in order for them to do proper job and correct the anomalies that occurred in the last Census.
The Statistician General assured the general public that the advance tools to be used will aid the job to be executed quickly and accurately and will also completely eliminate any possibility of data falsification as was the case in the past Census stating that other countries like Kenya have used the system and it worked for saying that, this is why the institution is keen to replicate it in Sierra Leone.
