Kano State Government has appealed to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to consider issuing full payment of pilgrims’ Basic Travelling Allowance (BTA) before departure to ease unforeseen bottlenecks in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
The appeal came against the Federal government policy that stipulates $200 in cash and $300 accessible via automated tell card in Saudi Arabia.
Rising from an emergency meeting on the development, Chairman board of directors, Kano State Pilgrims Board, Yusif Lawan, noted that the new CBN policy is capable of creating untold hardship for pilgrims at the holy land.
He said the system of reducing the BTA from the authorized $500 to $200 and conversation of the balance into electronic withdrawal abroad was not ideal for passengers especially those from rural areas who are not familiar with the payment system.
“We recently received a directive from the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria regarding the BTA process. According to the directive, pilgrims will receive only $200 in cash, while the remaining $300 will be accessible via card in Saudi Arabia. We urged CBN to reserve this decision because of the peculiar demography of some of our pilgrims.”
Similarly, Director General of the Board, Alhaji Lamin Rabi’u Danbappa, said the new policy is unjustified under the present circumstances. Danbappa also aligned his position with the view of the Chairman, pointing out that many pilgrims coming from rural areas may not be familiar with the card system to access their funds in Saudi Arabia.
Lamin Rabi’u Danbappa called on the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria to reconsider this decision, noting that it imposes additional hardships on the pilgrims, who are already facing challenges due to the high fare this year.
The Director General emphasized that requiring pilgrims to use cards in Saudi Arabia could lead to numerous problems during the Hajj exercises. He stressed that the BTA is intended to assist pilgrims and should not be a cause of confusion or difficulty.
Sulaiman Dederi, a spokesman of the board, the DG urged relevant authorities to prevail on CBN to reverse the policy in a manner that will genuinely assists the pilgrims.
Meanwhile, a total of 3,275 pilgrims have so far departed Nigeria in eight rounds of flight operation to Saudi Arabia since the take off of the inaugural flight in Kebbi on Wednesday.
NAHCON command and control centre confirmed the departure of 425 Lagos pilgrims and 2 officials on Flynas flight XY8048 to Madinah, Saudi Arabia at exactly 10:38hrs on Friday.
