Sierra Leone’s government has delivered 25,000 tablet computers, along with power banks and protective cases, to Statistics Sierra Leone, marking what the national statistics agency is calling a major milestone in preparations for the country’s Decennial Population and Housing Census, scheduled for December.

The consignment, funded entirely by the government, is intended to equip enumerators to collect, verify, and transmit household data electronically rather than relying on the paper-based methods that slowed earlier counts. Officials say the devices build on 4,000 tablets already supplied in 2025 for the national cartographic mapping exercise that preceded this year’s enumeration planning.

Dr. Colins Opiyo, Chief Technical Adviser for the 2026 Census, described the delivery as central to the technical and operational readiness of the exercise, according to Statistics Sierra Leone. Samuel Ansumana, the agency’s Director of Communication and Public Relations, and Moses Johnson, Officer-in-Charge of Operations and Logistics, both pointed to the equipment as a step toward a fully digital census, one in which electronic questionnaires and built-in validation checks are designed to flag inconsistencies in the field and speed up the release of results, rather than leaving errors to be caught only after data entry back in Freetown.

The investment comes as Statistics Sierra Leone works to avoid a repeat of the problems that dogged the 2021 mid-term census, when the late arrival of tablets borrowed from other countries delayed fieldwork. Buying the equipment outright, officials say, gives the agency direct control over scheduling and distribution ahead of the December count.

The census has drawn close scrutiny from Parliament in recent months. MPs on the Parliamentary Committee on Development have pressed Statistics Sierra Leone on a reported budget in the range of US$37 to 38 million, a funding gap of roughly US$10.9 million, and the pace of recruiting and training enumerators, particularly in rural areas where some recruits have little prior experience with tablet devices. A steering committee chaired by the Vice President has been working to close the funding gap, with the Ministry of Finance signalling it will step in if donor support falls short, as it did during the 2021 exercise.

Statistics Sierra Leone says the census data will underpin government planning across education, healthcare, infrastructure, and job creation for the next decade, and is urging households nationwide to cooperate fully with enumerators and provide accurate information so that, in the agency’s words, every person and household is counted. The agency has also acknowledged, in briefings to lawmakers, gaps in its public engagement with Parliament and has pledged more regular updates as the December enumeration approaches.

With just weeks remaining before Census Night, the rollout of the new devices is likely to be read as a test of whether the government’s heavier up-front investment in technology can finally deliver the smooth count that has eluded Sierra Leone in the past.

Sources: Awoko Newspaper (“Govt. Boosts Census Preparations with 25,000 Tablets”), Statistics Sierra Leone (statistics.sl), Awoko Newspaper (“Parliament Calls for Enhanced Collaboration Ahead of December 2026 Census”)