– To July 23
The Pilgrims Office Affairs of Ghana (PAOG) has announced extension of deadline of payment for this year’s holy trip to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to Saturday, July 23, 2016.
A statement signed by Administrative Secretary of POAG, Alhaji Mohammed Osman Manaf, explained that the extension of the payment became necessary after consultation with stakeholders including Hajj Agents Association of Ghana following calls from numerous potential pilgrims.
“Due to the challenges we encountered in 2015 because of late payments, the Hajj Committee decided to open payment for this year’s Hajj as early as March 2016 and penciled July 15, 2016 as the deadline for payment. This was to afford us enough time for registration of would-be Pilgrims and visa issuance processes,” the statement explained.
It added that “it is our fervent hope that this grace period of extension would help our potential Pilgrims to immediately proceed to any UniBank branch across the country to make payments because there will never be any consideration for another extension.”
The statement also revealed that the Hajj Committee will for the first time in the history hajj organization airlift from the Tamale Airport approximately 1500 prospective pilgrims residing in the three Northern regions.
“The first three flights out of eleven flights for Ghana this year will fly from the Tamale Airport beginning August 20 to August 23. The remaining eight flights are also expected to fly from the Kotoka International Airport in Accra from August 24 to August 30”, the statement noted.
The hajj fare for this year however remains unchanged, the statement added.
“Prospective Pilgrims are expected to pay $3450 or GHC11, 900 as the fare for this year’s Hajj to any UniBank branch across the country and then proceed to the Hajj Village at Kotoka International Airport for registration. They must carry along with them the pay-in-slip from Unibank together with their biometric passport, authentic vaccination card (yellow card), Twelve (12) passport sized photos, One Hundred and Fifty Ghana Cedis (GHC150) for Pilgrim customized bags and Fifty Ghana Cedis (GHC50) for handling charges.
Our officers at the documentation department will be expecting you from the hours of 8am to 5pm of the five working days,” the statement noted.
Source: GhanaWeb
