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ANNUAL ECONOMIC SURVEY OF ENTERPRISES (AESE 2019)
Background
The Annual Economic Survey of Enterprises (AESE) is one of the two components of the Economic Survey in Sierra Leone. The other component of the Economic Survey is the Sierra Leone Integrated Household Survey (SLIHS). The AESE is an extension of the Business Establishments Census (BEC) which was conducted in 2016 and it is done after every five years since 2006.
The current AESE which is also known as the 2019 AESE is based on the 2016 Business Establishments Census. In 2016, a census of business establishments was conducted country wide to list all businesses operating in Sierra Leone taking note of their kind of economic activities, geographic location, employment count, turnover and compensation of employees. The main criterion for listing an establishment is that it must be located in a fixed structure, which is a structure that is immobile. For this purpose, businesses that are not located in an immobile structure are not considered as establishments.
While the AESE is an enterprise based survey, the SLIHS is an household based survey collecting information about the production activities, income generation and sources, consumption composition and pattern, capital expenditure, employment status, housing conditions and demographics of households. The most recent SLIHS was conducted in 2018 and data collected will be used together with the 2019 AESE to do a complete rebasing of the GDP and other National Accounts aggregates in 2020.
Before 2016, enterprises in Sierra Leone were classified according to the International Standard Industrial Classification of all economic activities (ISIC) Revisions 3 and 3.1 with a view to implement fully the concepts and conventions of the 1993 System of National Accounts (SNA 93). The 2016 Business Establishments Census (BEC) was classified according to ISIC Revision 4 laying out the foundation for the implementation of the 2008 System of National Accounts (SNA 2008). Thus, the 2019 AESE as an extension of the 2016 BEC will be classified according to ISIC Revision 4 with a view to begin the implementation of SNA 2008 which is an updated version of SNA 1993.
The ISIC Revision 4 has 21 sections (or broad industries) and 88 divisions (or sub industries). Out of these 21 sections, the 2019 AESE will cover 14 sections and 71 divisions. Also, the geographic coverage of the 2019 AESE is all 16 districts in Sierra Leone. The excluded ISIC sections are Mining and quarrying; Electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply; Water supply, sewerage, waste management and remediation activities; Financial and insurance activities; Public administration and defence; Activities of households as employers and producers of goods and services for own use, and Activities of Extraterritorial organizations and bodies.
Activities of households as employers and producers have already been covered by the SLIHS and activities of extraterritorial organizations and bodies are not applicable at the current moment in Sierra Leone. The remaining excluded ISIC sections will be covered during the administrative data collection exercise. On this basis, the 2019 AESE is targeting Non-Financial corporations only.