Alhaji Farouk Hamza
Hajj operations have been digitised for the past eight years under the immediate past Ghana Hajj Board.
This was disclosed in a reaction to Mussa Dankwah’s suggestion in one of his latest observations about this year’s Hajj which, according to him, could be enhanced if it is leveraged on technology.
“We inherited a 100% manual system of operation from payment and registration for Hajj through check in of pilgrims,” the former Director of Communications of the immediate past Hajj Board, A.R. Gomda disclosed in a statement.
“We, within a short period, digitalised virtually every aspect of our operations through the purpose built App called Ghana Hajj App,” he stated, adding that “this brought in enhanced operations in registration and payments. Pilgrims could register and pay bank deposit, transfer MoMo from anywhere in the world without the need to visit the Hajj Village safe to submit passports.”
The processing of visa online and SMS notification when visa is ready was another feature of technology which we leveraged upon, he said.
The Executive Secretary of the previous Ghana Hajj Board, Alhaji Farouk Hamza, a Chartered Accountant with a hands-on approach to Hajj operations, could read all situations from his smart phone and step in when challenges rear their heads.
The situation that happened this year where several times pilgrims were in queue checking in only to be told the flight was full, is a thing of the past that suddenly reared its ugly head this year, because as noted by the former Hajj Board official, it “was because the system was powered by technology with very little human interference, except where pilgrims didn’t show up and needed to be replaced.”
Flight allocation, roster and manifest including notification prompts to pilgrims on when they are due to fly were areas which benefited immensely from technology, which was not in short supply in Hajj operations, the Director said.
There was no occasion when prospective pilgrims did not get their official bags, the statement indicated, explaining that digitisation made the distribution easy and smooth running.
The Ghana Hajj App, because of its efficiency, was applied for check in of pilgrims onto flights both in Ghana and Saudi. “Our App was approved and adopted by both the airline and Aviance, the ground handling company.
Allocation of houses and rooms were done through the App, with features that allowed even pilgrims families to know their designated rooms from Ghana for ease of monitoring and checking on them was another feature of the Ghana Hajj App which obviated the kind of challenges being endured today in Saudi Arabia by Ghanaians pilgrims.”
Bus allocation and movement from Madina through Makkah to Mina City, check in and weighing of luggage from Makkah at the end of Hajj and the allocation of Zamzam upon arrival in Ghana have over the past eight years been devoid of the challenges which persisted in previous times, the Director observed in the statement.
“While we commend Mussa Dankwah for his observations, we shall be quick to add that former Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia had directed the Executive Secretary Farouk Hamza to digitise Hajj operations, which he did, and the dividends were mammoth,” the statement stressed.