Saudi Arabia unveils major Hajj reforms under Vision 2030 – NAHCON

Saudi Arabia unveils major Hajj reforms under Vision 2030 – NAHCON

The Chairman of the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON), Malam Ismail Yusuf, says Saudi Arabia is implementing major structural reforms to the administration of Hajj under its vision 2030 programne.

Yusuf disclosed this in Abuja on Monday at a media roundtable on the 2026 Hajj policy reforms of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and their implications for Nigeria’s Hajj operations.

He said the reforms were aimed at improving efficiency, strengthening regulation and enhancing the experience of pilgrims undertaking the annual prigrimage.

According to him, the Saudi Ministry of Hajj is moving from the existing state managed system towards a more commercialised digitised and regulated framework.

“The whole idea of having this media interaction is for Nigerians to know that there is a structural shift in Hajj arrangement by Saudi Arabia,” Yusuf said.

He explained that Saudi Arabia, as the host country of Hajj, periodically reviewed its arrangements to ensure that the pilgrimage remained efficient and responsive to the needs of pilgrims.

He said the 2026 reforms represented a “profound overhaul” of the annual pilgrimage, driven by the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 agenda.

Yusuf added that the reforms were also linked to Saudi Arabia’s ambition of accommodating up to 30 million pilgrims by 2030 while maintaining strict safety and operational standards.

He identified privatisation and market restructuring through a Business-to-Business (B2B) model as one of the most significant components of the new arrangement.

According to him, Saudi Arabia is systematically moving away from dealing directly with government-run national pilgrimage welfare boards such as those operating in Nigeria.

“Instead, it is forcing international Hajj delegations to migrate to the business model,” he said.

He disclosed that under the initial arrangement for Nigeria, there was an attempt to move 98 per cent of Nigerian pilgrims to the tour-operator model.

He described the proposed transition as one of the most drastic changes introduced under the new Saudi Hajj policy.

Yusuf further explained that Saudi Arabia had reviewed the structure of Hajj service packages covering accommodation, transportation and feeding.

He said the previous system provided pilgrims with several categories, including five-star, four-star, three-star and lower-cost options, with corresponding differences in cost and service.

According to him, the lower-cost category had been particularly important to Nigeria because many Nigerian pilgrims save for years to perform Hajj.

“If you understand the demography of pilgrims in Nigeria, you know that 80 to 90 per cent of pilgrims from Nigeria are poor people who, out of commitment to their religion, save over time to be able to perform the sacred duty,” he said.

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He said Saudi Arabia was cancelling the grade-D package as part of its objective of ensuring that every pilgrim received an acceptable standard of service.

“Moving forward, the Saudi government is cancelling the grade D package because they believe that anybody who comes to perform Hajj should have the best experience,” Yusuf said.

The NAHCON chairman also highlighted professional training and certification as another major component of the reforms.

He said Hajj administrators would be required to undergo specialised training in areas including logistics, medical services, disaster management, crowd control and pilgrim welfare.

“All that are going to be included in the packages for training, and they expect that unless you get certification for that, you are not going to be accepted as a Hajj manager,” he said.

Yusuf said uncertified individuals would not be permitted to perform official Hajj management functions, although they could undertake the pilgrimage as ordinary citizens.

He further identified digitalisation and centralisation as key elements of the Saudi reforms, with the Nusuk application and Masaar platform playing central roles in the new system.

“All visa applications, hotel bookings, flight confirmations, entry permits, including access to the holy sites must be secured and paid for exclusively through digital portal,” he said.

He stressed that Nigeria would therefore need adequate digital infrastructure and technical capacity to ensure that its pilgrims were not disadvantaged by the new requirements.

The NAHCON chairman also drew attention to the strict operational timelines introduced by Saudi authorities, saying the deadlines were intended to facilitate the complex logistics involved in managing millions of pilgrims.

He said the deadline for uploading data for the 2027 Hajj had been fixed for Sept. 26, 2026, and that the Saudi authorities had indicated that the date would not be extended.

He urged relevant Nigerian stakeholders to understand the implications of the reforms and ensure timely registration, documentation, payment and other preparatory processes.