By Sunday Elijah
A Nigerian group, Independent Hajj Reporters, has called on National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON) to instruct State Muslim Pilgrim’s Welfare Boards to announce the start of registration of intending pilgrims for the 2025 hajj exercise.
“Delayed registration affects late remittance by states and the behind-schedule remittance of pilgrims’ deposits by states will obstruct NAHCON’s ability to process and transfer the needed funds to Saudi Arabia service providers which will also have a negative influence on the Saudi-based service providers’ readiness to provide efficient and effective services to our dear pilgrims,” the National Coordinator Ibrahim Muhammed, said in a statement.
He said the call become imperative given the short time frame allocated to pre-hajj activities in the newly released hajj calendar by the world Hajj regulator – the Saudi Ministry of Hajj and Umrah.
Muhammed said NAHCON should set its sights on adhering to its hajj calendar to avoid conflicts with important pre-hajj activities.
State Muslim Pilgrims Welfare Boards are the centre of pre-hajj activities in terms of registration of pilgrims, documentation, orientation, and conveyance of funding.
According to him, With the commencement of contracts with Service Providers on service packages, and choice and reservation of spaces in Masha’er set to begin by the 23rd of October 2024, Nigeria has less than 3 months to project the number of pilgrims it will convey to the 2024 hajj.
He added that the issuance of visas is set to begin on 19th February 2025 and end on 18th April 2025. The remaining 6 months before the commencement of issuance of visa should be jealously utilized to avoid the late rush hour experienced last year ‘the statement added
His statement added that since it was clear that the Nigerian government may not grant concession on exchange rates, NAHCON should urge states to announce initial deposits based on prevailing exchange rates with a pen-down agreement with financial institutions that deposits from pilgrims will be automatically converted to US dollars and receipted as such.
Such a step according to him will safeguard the deposit made by pilgrims from being devalued during hajj transactions as experienced with pilgrims BTA this year.
“We urge state governors to reduce the administrative bureaucracy to allow States Muslim Pilgrims Welfare Boards and agencies to execute pre-hajj activities like the commencement of hajj registrations, announcements of hajj fare benchmarks, transferring of hajj deposit to NAHCON with little administrative channels. This major issue caused delays in the previous hajj exercise., the statement added