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By Olu Balogun
A faith-based civil society organization, CSO, the Independent Hajj Reporters, IHR, has joined the call on the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN to abolish the 2% charge it receives from the payments of intending Hajj pilgrims from the country.
The group’s appeal follows similar calls by many Hajj stakeholders urging the CBN to waive the payments.
It declared that the two percent charge by the apex bank, which translates to $90 (N144,000) per pilgrim, based on the N1,600 foreign exchange benchmark used by the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria, NAHCON, has contributed to the high cost of Hajj for Nigerian pilgrims.
IHR, in a statement Sunday signed by its National Coordinator, Ibrahim Mohammed, said following public outcry over the high cost of Hajj, “the CBN should abolish the revenue it collects simply for transferring Hajj payments to NAHCON’S IBAN account in Saudi Arabia.“
It recalled that Saudi Arabia allocates 95,000 slots to Nigeria for the annual pilgrimage, adding that if the quota is filled, the CBN generates approximately $8,550,000 (N13.68 billion) in revenue yearly from Hajj payments by pilgrims.
The group stated that “while we do not claim that the payments are illegal, we believe that the CBN can waive them as their contribution to the reduction of Hajj fare in the country.”
“Nigerian pilgrims are paying multiple service charges to various government establishments, which has jerked up the overall cost of the Hajj fare.
“It should be noted that NAHCON has been funding its operations since 2019, relying on its service charge and relieving the government of Hajj operational costs. Such self-reliance measure needs to be supported by other government institutions to guarantee seamless and efficient services for Nigerian pilgrims,” it stressed.
