By Shafii Sani Mohammed
The Hajj Savings Scheme will commence operations from the 4th of October. This was made known by the Coordinator of the Scheme Dr. Aliyu Tanko during Training for ICT Staff of the States Pilgrims Welfare Boards on enrollment into the Hajj Savings Scheme held at NAHCON Headquarters in Abuja today.
In his opening remarks, Dr. Tanko who gave a brief history of the scheme, stated that Nigerians will draw a lot of benefits from the Scheme which included among other things subsidy on the cost of Hajj fare as a result of the Commission’s ability plan to plan ahead aligning the Country’s Hajj system in line with global standards, creation of a self-sustaining Hajj Industry, boost the economy of country, provision of jobs and finally allowing for long term strategic planning of Hajj Operations.
He told the participants “the importance of the scheme and why the participants as Registration Officers need to contribute towards the success of the Scheme as they will be the first point of contact for enrollees.
In the presentations, participants were educated on the different aspects of the scheme which include giving additional information on how the scheme works. The ICT Unit of the Commission presented a paper and demonstrated on how to do a self-enrolment using the portal and also how to enroll applicants into the scheme using the same portal through creation of account profile on the portal after which savings can commence.
In an effort to provide ease of enrollment into the Hajj Savings Scheme portal, Jaiz Bank presented on how the registration officers can enroll intending pilgrims for their BVN without necessary having to visit any bank. The BVN and National Identification number were highlighted as a necessary requirement before intending pilgrims can be enrolled into the scheme. The issue of uniformity of information was also raised to avoid having discrepancies and difficulty while enrolling into the scheme. Deliberations in form of questions and answers were entertained between the facilitators and participants.
Shafii Sani Mohammed wrote from NAHCON MEDIA UNIT
