CBN approves cash-based BTA for 2025 Hajj pilgrims

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has approved a cash-based Basic Travel Allowance (BTA) for Nigerians performing the 2025 Hajj.

The approval came following the intervention of Vice President Kashim Shettima, who appealed to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on behalf of the pilgrims through the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON).

Stanley Nkwocha, spokesperson for Mr Shettima, disclosed this in a statement on Thursday.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) introduced a new payment method for the BTA earlier in the year for Nigerians embarking on the 2025 Hajj pilgrimage.

Under the revised system, each pilgrim would be issued an ATM card for withdrawals and transactions during the pilgrimage in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

The initiative made it mandatory for all intending pilgrims to open a BTA-linked bank account.

However, stakeholders rejected the bank’s move, citing concerns that included the limited ability of many rural-based pilgrims to operate ATMs and potential fraud issues.

The Independent Hajj Reporters (IHR), a faith-based Civil Society organisation (CSO), was among the leading voices calling on the CBN to scrap the initiative.

IHR Coordinator Ibrahim Mohammed said the policy would create unprecedented hardship and confusion in Nigeria’s hajj ecosystem.

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“We advise CBN to exclude Hajj pilgrims from this policy because of the foreseen hardship to be faced by our dollar pilgrims while in Saudi Arabia”.

CBN approved cash transactions for pilgrims

Meanwhile, the CBN on Thursday approved pilgrims’ requests for cash transactions during their holy pilgrimage to Mecca.

Speaking with journalists after a meeting with the Vice President, NAHCON’s Commissioner for Policy, Personnel Management & Finance, Aliu Abdulrazaq, confirmed to journalists after a meeting with the vice president on Thursday that the CBN granted Nigerian pilgrims the opportunity of cash transactions for this year’s Hajj.

Read full statement

CBN Approves Cash-based BTA for 2025 Hajj Pilgrims To Ease Travel Demands

It became obvious that the 2025 Hajj would be seamless, as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Wednesday approved the request by pilgrims to be granted cash transactions for the holy pilgrimage to Mecca.

This followed the intervention of Vice President Kashim Shettima, who appealed to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on behalf of the pilgrims through the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON).

There had been concerns that the hitherto use of mandatory debit cards proposed by the CBN for the pilgrimage would endanger the smooth planning, operation, and performance at the 2025 Hajj.

Speaking with journalists after a meeting with the Vice President, NAHCON’s Commissioner for Policy, Personnel Management & Finance, Aliu Abdulrazaq, confirmed that the CBN granted Nigerian pilgrims the opportunity of cash transactions for this year’s Hajj.

He said, “The meeting was prompted by the federal government’s policy on the card for Basic Travel Allowance (BTA) for 2025 Hajj operations. We have held a series of meetings before now. The Vice President intervened and invited the Central Bank’s Deputy Governor with a plea.

“Out of the magnanimity of the CBN and appeal made by the Vice President, they dropped the idea of a card for pilgrims in the 2025 Hajj, and they conceded to people having cash instead of a card. This is a landmark achievement for NAHCON.

“If you go to Saudi Arabia, mostly the areas where the pilgrims are going to perform their rituals, there is only one Automated Teller Machine there, and it is always crowded – it poses so much difficulties for pilgrims to purchase whatever they want to purchase.

“Secondly, 95 per cent of the pilgrims from Nigeria are peasant farmers, and they have difficulties with electronic payments. Even with the cash, some of them have difficulties identifying the currencies. These variables make it important for them to have the cash they are used to.

“From now on, we are even more confident that the Hajj operations will be very seamless for the pilgrims. All arrangements have been in top gear, but the BTA was our fear; today, the fear has now been addressed.”

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) had earlier in the year introduced a new payment method for Basic Travel Allowance (BTA) for Nigerians embarking on the 2025 Hajj pilgrimage.

Under the revised system, each pilgrim would be issued an ATM card for withdrawals and transactions during the pilgrimage in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The initiative made it mandatory for all intending pilgrims to open a BTA-linked bank account.

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Adding his voice to the new development, NAHCON’s Secretary, Dr Mustapha Muhammad Ali, clarified that the change is neither a concession nor a subsidy from the federal government.

“There is a need for clarification we want to make. It is not a concession or intervention by the federal government. It is not a subsidy either. The Vice President intervened because most of the pilgrims make purchases in the streets of Mecca or Medina, and they do not need debit cards to make their purchases. Now it is allowed for them to carry cash. The CBN will provide the cash at the market rate,” he said.

Explaining the CBN’s intervention in the matter, the Director of Human Resources at the CBN and Board member representing the CBN in NAHCON, Abba Muhammad Aliyu, said the CBN granted NAHCON’s request because the welfare of Nigerian pilgrims was of utmost interest to the Nigerian government.

“Looking at the financial literacy of the pilgrims, there is a need for us to see that we make life easy for them because a lot of them do not know how to operate the ATM. So, these are some of the reasons the senior management of the Bank, in their own magnanimity upon the call of the Vice President, looked at those issues.”

He further clarified that the government was done with the concessionary issue, saying, “What is happening is purely a mode of payment method. Instead of asking the pilgrims to carry a card, they are only going to be paid through cash.”

Stanley Kingsley Nkwocha

Senior Special Assistant to The President on Media & Communications

(Office of The Vice President)

24th April, 2025