The Independent Hajj Reporters (IHR) yesterday asked the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON) to refund the 26,287 intending pilgrims to this year’s Hajj in Saudi Arabia a little over N400,000 as a differential from the exchange rates used to calculate the 2025 fare.

The agency had announced over N8 million as the Hajj fare and fixed a deadline of February Osun: You can’t conduct fresh LG poll, AGF tells Adeleke 10 for all payments to be deposited into its account.

An analysis of the 2025 Hajj fare templates indicates that the commission had fixed N1,600 to a dollar and the dollar component within the templates shows that intending pilgrims from the North paid $4,704.18 while their southern counterparts paid $4,908.18. 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.

In a statement, IHR said 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.

The civil society organization (CSO) said: “We call on NAHCON not to wait until after the forthcoming Hajj to refund the differentials since the money is already in its coffers and it will go a long way in helping the pilgrims raise additional money for their upkeep while in the holy land.”