The National Hajj Commission of Nigeria says it processes refunds to Nigerian pilgrims after Hajj operations, not before.

This is contained in a statement issued on Thursday in Abuja by Alhaji Shafii Sani, an official in the Information and Publications Division of NAHCON.

The Independent Hajj Reporters had a few hours ago raised concern over N437,000 as a differential from the exchange rates used to calculate the 2025 Hajj fares for each intending pilgrim.

IHR, in a statement signed by its National Coordinator, Alhaji Ibrahim Mohammed, called the leadership of NAHCON not to wait until after the forthcoming Hajj to refund the differentials since the money was already in its coffers.
IHR coordinator recalled that NAHCON had announced a Hajj fare of over N8 million and fixed a deadline of February 10, for all payments to be deposited into its account.

“An analysis of the 2025 Hajj fare templates indicates that the commission had fixed N1600 to a dollar and the dollar component within the templates shows that intending pilgrims from the North paid 4,704.18 dollars while their Southern counterparts paid 4,908.18 dollars.

“Further analysis indicated that the cost of exchange of Naira to a dollar on February 13, was N1,507 which gives a difference of N93 to each dollar.

IHR said that based on its calculations, each of the 26,287 pilgrims who paid ahead of the deadline should be refunded an average of N437,000 each.

However, the NAHCON official said, “NAHCON acknowledges the concerns raised by the Independent Hajj Reporters regarding foreign exchange differentials in the 2025 Hajj fare.