The Energy Sector Management Assistance Programme (ESMAP) World Bank team informed Professor Osman Sankoh aka Mallam O and his Deputy Andrew Johnny to be resolute during their congratulatory note to their team members.

He said: “We are an excellent group of statisticians with a winner vision. We can do it! There is no institution anywhere in the world which can beat us when it comes to implementing national surveys in our own country.”

World Bank team informed Mallam O, the Statistician-General and CEO of Stats SL of the institution’s invitation to the second and final stage of the internationally competitive process for selecting an institution to implement the first Global Energy Access Household Surveys in Sierra Leone.

Stats SL had written and submitted an expression of interest, led by Principal Statisticians Osman Awoto Soltani-Koroma and Alimamy Yalancy and supervised by DSG Andrew Johnny to be part of the competition.

The ESMAP team, in collaboration with the Sierra Leone Ministry of Energy, is launching the Surveys in Sierra Leone. The objective of the survey is to establish a baseline for tracking progress towards the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) #7.1 on access to affordable, reliable and sustainable modern energy by 2030.

Under Mallam O’s leadership, Stats SL attaches a premium to competing for externally funded activities which will eventually augment government financial support to the institution.

Other shortlisted Firms are Centre for Economic and Social Policy Analysis; Ipsos Kenya Ltd; and Innovations for Poverty Action.