The National Hajj Commission of Nigeria has said it will retain the requirement that Hajj tour operators demonstrate a N250 million financial position over three years before receiving pilgrim allocations.
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of NAHCON, Ambassador Ismail Abba Yusuf, said the measure was intended to ensure operators had sufficient financial capacity to meet their obligations to pilgrims.
Speaking at a media briefing in Abuja on preparations for the 2027 Hajj, Yusuf said the commission increased the requirement from N40 million because the previous threshold did not adequately reflect the financial responsibility involved in handling large numbers of pilgrims.
“We changed that bank guarantee to N250m and there was a lot of resistance but we felt the move was correct,” he said.
Yusuf argued that an operator handling 100 pilgrims could be responsible for transactions approaching N1 billion, making a N40 million guarantee inadequate if problems arose.
The NAHCON chairman also said the commission was working with state authorities and tour operators to improve digital readiness for the Saudi NUSUK platform.
He said only a limited number of Nigerian tour operators currently had the capacity to independently meet all Saudi digital-upload requirements, with many still relying on the commission for support.
Yusuf added that international anti-money laundering requirements affected how Hajj funds were transferred.
He said remittances had to pass through the Central Bank of Nigeria and that private tour operators faced constraints in obtaining the same treatment as public Hajj institutions.
The commission, he said, was therefore trying to create a transition period that would allow operators to build the required capacity.
Yusuf also referred to Saudi Arabia’s 2026 Hajj policy reforms and the September 26 deadline for uploading pilgrims’ data.
He said the Federal Government had directed that Nigeria should comply fully with Saudi requirements to protect the country’s diplomatic standing and preserve its 50,000 pilgrim quota.
According to him, NAHCON would continue consultations with tour operators while monitoring their capacity to assume a greater share of the digital and financial responsibilities associated with Hajj operations.
