Despite the economic crunch spreading across Nigeria, the federal and state governments have splashed billions of naira on subsidies for pilgrims intending to travel to Mecca for the 2024 Hajj.
Muslim worshippers reach to touch the golden doors of Kaaba, Islam’s holiest shrine, while performing the ‘Umrah’ pilgrimage circumambulation or ‘tawaf’, circling seven times around it at the Grand Mosque in the holy city of Mecca, 6 September 2023.
“Intending pilgrims that still wish to participate in the 2024 Hajj fare are by this release advised to proceed and pay a balance of N1,918,032.91 by 28 March,” the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria said in a statement last week. Following the sudden increase of N1.9 million Hajj fare increase by the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria, I have approved a subsidy of N500,000 each for intending pilgrims from Kano embarking on the 2024 pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia.In Jigawa, where 1,260 pilgrims registered for Hajj, the state government approved N1m each as a subsidy. The pilgrims will have to pay the balance of N900,000.
Other states, such as Kogi in north-central Nigeria, which paid N800m for its 460 pilgrims, also provided further subsidies for their intending pilgrims.Quoting an unnamed source, the newspaper reported that the support was announced on 28 February at the vice president’s office, but“By the previous calculation, the N90bn given by the federal government can only subsidise 19,000 intending pilgrims by N3.5m,” the source was quoted as saying.
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