Statistics Sierra Leone (Stats SL) has received a major boost for the upcoming December 2026 Population and Housing Census, taking delivery of 25,000 digital tablets, power banks, and protective cases.
Procured entirely through funding from the Government of Sierra Leone, the consignment arrived on October 7, 2026. It builds on an initial batch of 4,000 tablets secured in 2025 for national cartographic mapping, bringing the total census inventory to 29,000 units.
The new devices will replace traditional paper questionnaires, allowing field personnel to collect, validate, and transmit household data electronically. According to Stats SL, built-in validation checks will help catch errors and inconsistencies directly in the field, drastically reducing manual data entry delays.
Key technical leads, including Chief Technical Adviser Dr. Colins Opiyo, Director of Communication and Public Relations Samuel Ansumana, and Operations and Logistics Officer-in-Charge Moses Johnson, welcomed the arrival as a critical milestone in operational readiness.
With systems tested and hardware secured, the countdown to December is officially underway:
• December 1, 2026: Census Night.
• December 2, 2026: Nationwide household enumeration begins.
The resulting data will serve as the baseline for national planning in education, healthcare, and infrastructure. However, Stats SL emphasizes that technology alone cannot guarantee success, urging the public to cooperate fully with enumerators to ensure every citizen is counted.
