The Federal Government has allocated 1,166 Hajj seats to Adamawa for the 2022 Hajj exercise. Mal Abubakar Salihu, Executive Secretary, Adamawa State Muslim Pilgrims Welfare Commission, made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday in Yola.
He said that the Commission had made preparations to facilitate smooth conduct of the exercise, adding that sale of Hajj forms would be closed in May. He said the commissioned had registered over 1,000 outstanding intending pilgrims who deposited money for the Hajj fares since 2020, adding that they would be considered first before new registrants.
“As a result of depreciation of the Naira, increment on Value Added Tax (VAT) from five to 15 per cent, reintroduction of COVID-19 protocols, Hajj fare is estimated to rise to N2.56 million in 2022.”
Also, 80 per cent of the slots will be allocated to those who deposited and rolled over from 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022.“We will use first-come-first serve approach while the remaining 20 per cent will be for government sponsored pilgrims,” he said.
According to him, the commission is making efforts to provide decent accommodation for the pilgrims in the Holy Land at a reduce cost without compromising standard. “Even though the specific fares for 2022 Hajj is yet to be finalised, I urged those that deposited money to augment it in time to the tune of N2,565, 265,” he said. (NAN)
