COVER
Pressure Mounts on Tinubu, Govs over N95.9bn Hajj Fare Shortfall
Pressure is now on both President Bola Tinubu and state governors to provide intervention fund to enable intending pilgrims to Saudi Arabia perform their religious obligation.
The pressure stems from the upward review of Hajj 2024 fare by the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON).
The commission announced an upward review of Hajj 2024 fare on Sunday, resulting in an outcry.
NAHCON which initially pegged the fare at N4.
When the requested sum of N1.918 million is multiplied by the 50,000 intending pilgrims, it will amount to N95.900 billion as the shortfall of the fare.
NAHCON had in Dec. 2023 fixed N4.9 million per pilgrim based on the then exchange rate of N897 to the dollar.
Authorities at both the state and federal levels could not meet the deadline set by Saudi Arabia to remit operational funds for hajj services despite extensions given because NAHCON was waiting for the Federal Government’s promised intervention to grant lower forex rates equivalent to the number of registered pilgrims from Nigeria.
With the approved timeframe for visa processing ticking away, NAHCON on Sunday, therefore, announced that due to the failure to meet obligations as when due, it had no option but to ask the about 50,000 intending pilgrims that had paid the initial fare of N4.9 million to pay additional N1.918 million on or before March 28.
As a Civil Society Organization (CSO) by name Independent Hajj Reporters (IHR) raised the alarm yesterday saying over 90 percent of those who paid the initial deposit of N4.9 million cannot afford to raise additional N1.9 million within four days.
Mallam Muhammad Ibrahim, the National Chairman of IHR said, “It has therefore, become imperative for us to call on the state governors and the Federal Government to come in and provide immediate succour to the pilgrims by providing additional payments as a form of subsidy.
“Currently, NAHCON is on the verge of missing out on the deadline of 29 April set by Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Hajj and Umrah to process visas for Nigerian registered pilgrims – there will be no hajj without a visa.
“For example, it will take state pilgrims welfare boards a minimum of one week to make announcements for pilgrims to be aware of the new increase.
“Over 65 percent of those who have registered for the 2024 hajj are farmers and it will take an additional one week for those who have the means to be able to raise the N1.9 million increase announced by NAHCON.
“If the pilgrims were able to pay the additional increase, then states pilgrims boards will need a few days to transmit the collection to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for the bank to begin the process of transferring the said sum to NAHCON’s International Bank Account Number (IBAN) in Saudi Arabia. It is only after this that payments can be made to Saudi Arabia based service providers.”
Ibrahim added, “With visa processing scheduled to close 35 days from now and the airlift of pilgrims billed to commence in 45 days, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu should come to the rescue and provide the needed support without asking pilgrims to pay an additional increase for 2024 hajj.
“Anything short of this will see Nigeria travelling to Hajj 2024 with less than 10,000 pilgrims out of the allocated 95,000 slots with a potential risk of Nigerian pilgrims missing out on 2024 Hajj.”
According to him, IHR had on several occasions called on relevant authorities to take firm decisions and implement them because what is happening now had been foreseen.
“We first raised the alarm on July 8, 2023 via a press statement titled ‘CSO urges NAHCON, states to commence registration of 2024 Hajj pilgrims in earnest’ when the Saudi Arabia Ministry of Hajj and Umrah announced the commencement of Hajj 2024 operations even when Hajj 2023 was not concluded.
“This was followed by another statement dated 6th Dec where we pleaded with the Federal Government to grant concessionary exchange rates for 2024 hajj pilgrims.
“We are, therefore, appealing on behalf of all Nigerian Muslims that emergency interventions are provided so that pilgrims who have at least paid the initial deposit of N4.9 million are not denied the chance to fulfil this all-important religious obligation,” IHR said.
Similarly, a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and former Commissioner for Home Affairs in Lagos State, Mohammed Danmole has appealed to Tinubu to intervene.
Danmole said, “As a result of different regimes of rates of exchange given the tour operators and the state pilgrims board, it has become difficult for private tour operators to keep their clients.
“Your Excellency, I am sure that you will intervene and put succour and smile in the face of the private operators. I am appealing to the President to look into the high level of disparity in the exchange rate regime between the state sponsored pilgrims and those of the private tour operators.”
By David Torough, Abuja
Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS) has declared 281 inmates missing from the Medium Security Custodial Centre, Maiduguri, Borno State.
NCoS said this followed an evacuation after the flood that engulfed the state capital.
A statement onby the Service Public Relations Officer (SPRO), Mr Abubakar Umar yesterday in Abuja said seven other inmates had been recaptured.
Umar said that the service was in custody of the details of the missing inmates, including their biometrics.
“The flood brought down the walls of the correctional facilities, including the medium security custodial centre Maiduguri (MSCC) as well as the staff quarters in the city.
“Upon the evacuation of inmates by officers of the service with support from sister security agencies to a safe and secure facility, 281 inmates were observed to be missing.
“However, it is important to note that the service is in custody of their details, including their biometrics, which is being made available to the public.
“The service is working in synergy with other security agencies as both covert and overt deployments have been activated to look out for them.
“Presently, a total of seven (7) inmates have been recaptured and returned to custody, while efforts are on ground to track down the rest and bring them back to safe custody.“While this effort is on, the public is assured that the incident does not impede or affect public safety,” he said.
By Tony Obiechina, Abuja
After controversies, trucks from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL) yesterday lifted petrol from the Dangote Refinery.
NNPCL revealed that Dangote Refinery sold the fuel at N898 per litre.
The national oil company began loading yesterday after moving about 300 trucks to the 650,000 capacity refinery Dangote Refinery located in Ibeju-Lekki, Lagos State.
Its spokesman, Olufemi Soneye was quoted as saying, “We successfully loaded PMS at the Dangote Refinery today [Sunday].
”“The claim that we purchased it at N760 per liter is incorrect.
“For this initial loading, the price from the refinery was N898 per liter.
”At least, over 70 trucks had loaded at the time of this report.
This marks an end to the month-long debate over the quality and sale of the Dangote petrol.
Speaking to newsmen at the refinery, the Vice President of Oil and Gas at Dangote Industries Limited (DIL), Devakumar Edwin described the commencement of the petrol lifting moment of pride to every Nigerian.
He said, “My President has been showing presentations that 52 years ago, we were trying to see how to solve the problem of PMS supply and the queues. Now, after 52 years, we have a solution.
“And the solution is local production of PMS and it is from a Nigerian oil company. And as EPC contractor, it was constructed by a Nigerian company.
“So, it’s a matter of pride that a Nigerian oil company, constructed by a Nigerian-owned company, is able to generate PMS from the local crude and daily will not only to meet the entire requirement of Nigeria, but can also have surplus to export. So, it is a time and moment of great pride to every Nigerian.”
Edwin said 44 percent of the PMS production from the Dangote refinery can meet the requirement of the entire country.
“If you look at the refinery as a whole, PMS alone, every day, 650,000 barrels of crude if we’re processing, we can generate more than 54 million litres of PMS.
“And, of course, the refinery has the capacity to produce various other products too. 44% of the production can meet the entire requirement of the country, 56% of the production has to be exported. “So, it is a huge refinery. So, it is not only going to be doing import substitution, but it is also going to make Forex generation through export revenue.
“The gantries are actually 86 and they can load 86 trucks at a go,” he said.
Last Friday, in Abuja, a member of the Presidential Committee on the Sale of Crude Oil and Refined Product and Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Zacch Adedeji confirmed that the NNPCL remains the sole buyer of petrol from the Dangote refinery while willing off-takers are free to lift diesel and other products from the refinery.
According to Adedeji, the NNPCL would further distribute to other independent marketers after lifting from the refinery.
He said the nation’s oil company will commence the sale of crude oil to the Dangote refinery in naira from October 1.
By Tony Obiechina, Abuja
Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has issued a new directive to Payment Service Providers (PSPs), requiring them to comply with enhanced routing guidelines for Point of Sale (PoS) transactions.This move is aimed at strengthening the monitoring of electronic transactions across Nigeria.
The directive issued on Wednesday aims at strengthening the monitoring of electronic transactions across Nigeria following CBN’s initiative to diversify the Payment Terminal Service Aggregator (PTSA) structure, which previously operated through a single aggregator. In a circular signed by Oladimeji Yisa Taiwo on behalf of the CBN Payments System Management Department, the apex bank mandates that all PoS transactions from merchant and agent locations—whether physical or electronic—must now be routed through any CBN-licensed PTSA.The directive is part of efforts to decentralize PoS transaction routing and address concerns over the centralization of such transactions under a single entity.In Aug. 2011, the CBN initially granted a PTSA license to the Nigeria Interbank Settlement System (NIBSS) Plc to serve as the sole aggregator of PoS transactions.However, to promote competition and enhance service delivery, the CBN awarded a second PTSA license to Unified Payment Services Limited (UPSL) on April 19.This development aims to reduce the dependence on a single aggregator for the management of PoS transactions, promoting transparency and operational efficiency in Nigeria’s growing electronic payments landscape.
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