Freetown,13/08/21: Stats SL has commenced a Computer Assisted Personal Interview (CAPI) Experts Training for the 2021 Mid-Term Population and Housing Census, at the Fourah Bay College Multi-Purpose Hall at Mount Aureol in Freetown.
The training which will last for twelve (12) days is aimed at capacitating 17 Stats SL staff to have high level skills on CSPro, the software for the CAPI application support.
In his welcome address, the Project Coordinator for the Harmonising and Improving Statistics in West Africa Project (HISWA), Albert Bangura-Will said that participants were carefully selected in order to get a positive outcome and an excellent performance.
Giving an insight into the purpose and significance of the training, the Director of Data Science Division at Stats SL, Theophilus Blaudfaust said that the main objective of the training was to enhance the capacity of staff and their skills in the CAPI and CSPro applications for the 2021 Mid-Term Population and Housing Census which, he said would help them understand the rudiments of CAPI. He furthered that trainees would have the opportunity to get the specifics of the project and the resources needed to build on the capacity of each participant.
Giving an update on progress made so far on the overall census activities, the National Census Coordinator and Director of Censuses and Geographic Information Systems at Stats SL, Abdulai Brima, noted that since the inception of the Mid-Term Census Plan, Stats SL had achieved key milestones: developing the project document; receipt of adequate financial and technical support from the Government of Sierra Leone and development partners like The World Bank, UNFPA, UNICEF, UNECA, and several others. He intimated all present that the Cartographic Mapping which was 100% digital was a major milestone and an enormous success for the institution and the country as a whole. This work was climaxed by the mapping in July of the State Lodge Residence of the First Family, with President Julius Maada Bio and First Lady Fatima Bio present.
In his key note address, the Deputy Statistician General, Andrew Bob Johnny, pointed out that the training was critical for the Census. He noted that the trainees would be the trainers of the census enumerators. Mr Johnny continued that this crop of trainees would champion subsequent CAPI trainings and instructions for all technical undertakings of the Mid-Term Population and Housing Census. ” You should consider this training very important and be experts yourselves; it will prevent us from scouting around for international consultants all the time,” concluded DSG Johnny. He then formally declared the training open.
Climaxing the formal opening ceremony, Clementina Akran who is head of Open Data and Data Revolution at Stats SL, expressed delight and appreciation to the coordinators, partners, participants and the media for their efforts in making the opening ceremony a success.
Also present at the ceremony were the United Nation’s Economic Commission For Africa’s CAPI consultant, Kwamena from Ghana Statistical Service in Accra who is leading the training, Dr Baris Ucar, the UNFPA Population Census Coordination specialist assigned to Stats SL and the Stats SL Director of Communication and Public Relations, Samuel Ansumana.
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