By
Samiratu Larbie, GNA
Accra, Nov. 21, GNA
– The Hajj Board of Ghana has announced that pilgrims to the 2020 Hajj will pay
the same fare of Gh̸19,500.00 as those of last year.
Sheikh I.C Quaye,
the Chairman of the Board, who made this known, said this was due to
Government’s decision to absorb the incremental difference.
The Chairman made
the announcement at a thanksgiving ceremony in Accra for a successful Hajj in
2019.
He said the move by
the Government was in spite of a decision by the Saudi authorities to increase
the visa fees for the 2020 pilgrims by $80.
The decision, he
said, was made in consultation with the Hajj Board and the Vice President Dr
Mahamudu Bawumia.
He said previous
Hajj Boards had over the years been faced with debt overhang, adding that, with
this phenomenon the current Board changed its strategy.
“We hope to end our
tenure without any debt overhang even though we inherited huge debt from our
predecessors,” he said.
Sheikh Quaye
expressed gratitude to the President Akufo-Addo for putting measures in place
to ensure that some 452 prospective pilgrims who could not travel, although
they paid their monies in 2017, were given the opportunity.
They were working
with support from the welfare endowment to ensure that their credibility was
untainted, he said.
He announced that Dawah teams had been set up to secure
the spiritual and physical well-being of all Ghanaian pilgrims.
Measures had been
put in place to curb issues of missing luggage, as well.
The Saudi officials,
he said, had awarded Ghana a top prize for emerging as one of the leading
countries that organised the best Hajj in 2019.
In attendance at the
event was the National Chief Imam, regional chief imams, Sheikh Dr Amin Bonsu,
Sariki’s from the Zongo communities, among other eminent persons.
GNA
