News Editor
By Olu Balogun
A faith- based Civil Society Organization, CSO, the Independent Hajj Reporters, IHR, has called on the leadership of the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria, NAHCON to refund the 26,287 confirmed intending pilgrims to 2025 Hajj from Nigeria a little over N400,000 as differential from the exchange rates used to calculate this year’s Hajj fare.
NAHCON had announced a Hajj fare of over N8 million and fixed a deadline of February 10 for all payments to be deposited into its account.
IHR, in a statement signed by its national coordinator, Ibrahim Muhammad and released on Thursday, said an analysis of the 2025 Hajj fare templates indicated that the commission had fixed N1,600 to a dollar and the dollar component within the templates shows that intending pilgrims from the North paid $4,704.18 while their Southern counterparts paid $4,908.18.
It added that further analysis indicated that the cost of exchange of Naira to a dollar on February 13 was N1,507 which gives a difference of N93 to each dollar.
The group, therefore, explained that based on its calculations, each of the 26,287 pilgrims who paid ahead of the deadline should be refunded an average of N437,000 each.
“We call on NAHCON not to wait until after the forthcoming Hajj to refund the differentials since the money is already in its coffers and it will go a long way in helping the pilgrims raise additional money for their upkeep while in the holy land,” it stated.
The group also said the call became necessary “to further enhance transparency which appears to be a core principle of the current leadership of the commission.”
