A preliminary report of the Census of Business Establishments, conducted by Stats SL, and funded by the World Bank through the HISWA Project, reports that 165,514 business establishments are currently operating in Sierra Leone.
The Census of Business Establishments (CBE), held every five years, sought to count every existing business establishment in Sierra Leone, registered or not, from regular businesses occupying a structure to tiny businesses under an umbrella, canopy or ‘’Bafa’’.
The only exception of businesses not recorded during the CBE, which was conducted between December 2022 and the first quarter of 2023, were hawkers and mobile businesses without any fixed address.
Of the total businesses recorded, 48,299 were permanent and regular business establishments or ‘’non-bafas’’, whilst the remaining 117,215 were non-permanent tiny businesses and ‘’baffas’’.
Of the total number of business establishments, 70.6 % is trade, 12.1% is manufacturing, 4.6% are hotels, restaurants and bars and 4.0% are personal services including hairdressing / beauty saloons and repairs of personal and household goods.
For length of Time of recorded businesses, 50.8% have existed for 5 years or more, 33.1% have existed between 2-4 years, 14.7% are recently created since 2022 whilst 1.5% of businesses have not reported their starting date.
For type of establishments, 91.0% is sole proprietorship, 4.2% are partnerships, 0.8% are limited liability companies, 0.3% are cooperations, 0.5% are government and 3.2% are classified as unknown.
The CBE reports a total of 235,413 workers and 64.6% of the businesses recorded have one or two workers.
For the regional distribution of establishments, 48.3% are in the western area,16.4 are in the eastern province,14.7% are in the north,12.3% are in the south whilst 8.3% are in the north-West.
In related news, Stats SL also launched the Consumer Price Index Techical Guide Manual. The manual which is the first of its kind in Sierra Leone, gives an insight into the procedures and methodology for the computation of the CPI, which is used to measure inflation.
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