2019 Hajj was executed without govt funds – NAHCON chairman

The Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON), Abdullahi Mukhtar, says that for the first time in the history of Nigeria, the commission was able to execute hajj without government’s funding.

Buhari tasks NMA on quality healthcare services

He said the Commission’s drive going forward is to be able independent of government revenue but recurrent expenditure and overhead cost.

Mukhtar made the disclosure when the management of Daily Times Newspaper paid him a courtesy visit in his office in Abuja.

“Our drive is to be an independently funded agency and we are already working towards that which is why for the first time in the history of hajj operations in Nigeria, no government funds was used in 2019 both onshore and offshore.

“What government is paying us currently is just salary and overhead cost and with time, we want to be self-funded in the next four years when the Hajj savings scheme will commence, and with that, we can even borrow the government funds.

“This we have been able to be achieve through the support of the current administration by bringing sanity to the operations of the commission by expanding our revenue base and cutting unnecessary expenditure as well as imposing fines on defaulters,” he added.

In his earlier remarks, Aliu Akoshile, Managing Director of the Daily Times who led the management on the courtesy visit, said the newspaper has noticed with keen interest the remarkable transformation of the agency headed by the current chairman which is why the visit became important.

Akoshile also informed the NAHCON chairman about the resuscitation of the Daily Times newspaper, while seeking ways for collaboration between the agency and the newspaper.

“We’re here to inform you that Daily Times has been revived and to also seek ways which we can collaborate going forward to sensitise Nigerians on the different areas of remarkable transformation that has taken place in the commission.

“The Sunday Times is on the verge of being revived before the end of the year and hopefully by next year the Business Times will also return.

“We intend to explore this area of collaboration because the paper being the oldest newspaper in Nigeria has a rich archive for preservation of history that can be replicated in the case of the Hajj Commission.

“This is because information dissemination is a very huge task, and with Nigeria having over 100 Muslims all over the country, there is a need for collaboration to send the message wide across both at home and in the diaspora using Daily Times different online platforms which has a very wide readership and followership abroad,”