The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has debunked claims in certain quarters suggesting that prospective pilgrims have been granted concessionary foreign exchange rate for the 2016 pilgrimage.
This is contained in a statement in Abuja on Tuesday by the bank’s acting Director of Communications, Mr Isaac Okorafor. According to the statement, the CBN Governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele, said there was no preferential exchange rate of any sort to intending pilgrims.
He clarified that laid down procedure was followed in arriving at the exchange rate for the pilgrims.
“What is obtainable is that every year, prior to the commencement of the pilgrimage, the commission, both Christian and Muslims, approach the CBN to agree on the exchange rate for the personal travel allowance (PTA) for that particular year.
“In this case is between 750 dollars and 1,000 dollars per pilgrim,” he said.
He further explained that the agreement to sell foreign exchange to the pilgrims at the rate of N197 to the Dollar was reached as far back as April 2016 at the prevailing rate then.
According to the CBN Governor, this particular agreement is applicable to both intending Christian and Muslim pilgrims.
