According to the Statistician General, SSL is willing and ready to work assiduously with the new regime to ensure that overall national development is achieved. He informed his audience that the SSL has planned various national priorities which include Quality Education, Health, Water, Energy, Agriculture, Economy, Fighting Corruption, and Security, among other sectors to be stabilized or shaped to boost the economy, adding that the SSL has its mandate which was created by the Statistics Act of 2002.
Prof. Sankoh further noted that the SSL is responsible for the collection, compilation, analysis and dissemination of official statistics that guide policy makers to make informed decisions. He said the vision of the SSL is to create a viable National Statistical System (NSS) with the SSL being at the centre for the coordination, production, dissemination and accreditation of official statistics to support evidence-based decision-making processes at both policy and planning levels.
“We are ready to give the government accurate and credible data for national development,” Prof. Sankoh assured his audience, adding “we have created a National Statistical System to incorporate other key players like civil society organizations (CSOs), community based organizations (CBOs), and media institutions among others in a bid to demonstrate our commitment to national development.
He added that the SSL has also created an enabling environment for the National Statistical System to generate micro and macro data collection including survey and administrative data collections.
He also spoke about a proposed 2018 Sierra Leone Integrated Household Survey (SLIHS) which according to him is a nationwide survey supported by Government and the World Bank to collect detailed information on household incomes and expenditures.
He said the SSL will continue to demonstrate commitment as a responsible institution charged with the responsibility of collecting accurate data for national development and that they also intend to initiate a 2018-2022 Countrywide Mortality Surveillance for Action (COMSA) Project to collect data on mortality in collaboration with the Toronto University in Canada which he said was funded by the Gates Foundation.
He appealed to the Ministry of Finance to approve their budget so that the SSL will continue to deliver quality, timely and standard data for national development.
