LESS than a week after the official registration for the 2027 Hajj exercise, the Saudi Arabia Ministry of Hajj and Umrah has approved an additional 10,000 slots for Nigeria and conveyed the approval to the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON), despite the ministry’s initial rejection of the commission’s request for additional slots.
The Saudi authorities had last year reduced Nigeria’s allocation from 95,000, which the country had maintained for nearly two decades, to 50,000 for the 2025 Hajj exercise and maintained the figure for the 2026 and 2027 Hajj exercises.
News Point Nigeria reports that the latest approval now raises Nigeria’s allocation for the 2027 pilgrimage to 60,000 slots.
Based on the 50,000 slots allocated to Nigeria for the 2027 Hajj, NAHCON had distributed the slots among states and private tour operators, with states and the armed forces getting 35,000, while the remaining 15,000 was allocated to tour operators.
Following persistent requests for more allocations from state Muslim pilgrims’ welfare boards and private tour operators, NAHCON approached the Saudi ministry for more slots to be allocated to Nigeria for the 2027 Hajj.
However, on September 17, NAHCON announced that the Saudi authorities had declined Nigeria’s request for an upward review of its 2027 Hajj allocation.
The decline, according to the management of the Hajj commission, meant Nigeria’s earlier quota of 50,000 slots remained unchanged despite growing demand from intending pilgrims across the country.
The commission disclosed that it had formally engaged the Saudi Ministry of Hajj and Umrah, seeking additional pilgrimage slots to accommodate the increasing number of Nigerian Muslims desirous of undertaking the sacred journey and to address appeals from several state pilgrims’ welfare boards for enhanced allocations.
According to NAHCON, Saudi authorities communicated their inability to grant additional slots, citing capacity limitations, structural constraints within the holy sites and the Kingdom’s policy of strict adherence to approved country quotas under the current operational framework.
However, Tribune Online learnt that the Saudis made a U-turn as a result of diplomatic engagements involving higher authorities from both countries, prompting the Saudi Ministry of Hajj and Umrah to formally notify NAHCON of the approval of an additional 10,000 slots to Nigeria’s earlier allocation of 50,000 slots.
Reliable sources in NAHCON informed Tribune Online that the commission received a letter informing it of the allocation of the additional slots to Nigeria before the close of work on Wednesday.
This now brings Nigeria’s total allocation for next year’s Hajj exercise to 60,000 slots.
“Following diplomatic engagements between the Federal Government, NAHCON and Saudi authorities, the Saudi Ministry of Hajj and Umrah on Wednesday communicated approval of an additional 10,000 slots to Nigeria.
“This means that we now have the opportunity of registering more intending pilgrims for next year’s Hajj. This is, indeed, good news,” an insider in NAHCON told Tribune Online.
Asked what would happen after the September 26 deadline set by the Saudi ministry for all intending pilgrims’ registration data to be uploaded on its Nusuk Masar platform, another source said the Saudis would leave the platform open for the data of new registrants to be uploaded.
As of the time of filing this report, NAHCON had not made any official statement on the development, and it was not clear how the additional slots would be distributed, given that both states and private tour operators had agitated for more slots.