Kano State government has appealed to 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 Federal Government’s policy that stipulates $200 in cash and $300 accessible via automated card in Saudi Arabia.
Rising from an emergency meeting on the development, Chairman, Board of Directors, Kano State Pilgrims Board, Alhaji Yusif Lawan noted that the new CBN policy is capable of creating untold hardship to pilgrims at the holy land.
He said the system of reducing the BTA from the authorised $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 peculiar demography of some of our pilgrims.”
Similarly, the Director General of the Board, Alhaji Lamin Rabi’uDanbappa, 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.
Meanwhile, 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.
