The National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON), says it will soon engage bilingual Nigerians legally resident in Saudi Arabia to ease communication challenges faced by Nigerians during Hajj exercise.
A statement on the commission’s information centre monitored on Wednesday in Abuja, said that Mr Abdullahi Muhammad, NAHCON Acting Chairman, dropped the hint in Jedda, while speaking at a meeting with officials of Saudi Arabian United Agents.
“The aim of engaging the Arabic translators is to ease the Holy activity for Nigerian pilgrims,” he said.
He expressed profound gratitude to the Saudi Arabian United Agents for the services they had consistently rendered to Nigerian Pilgrims during the activity, and expressed confidence that the pilgrims would be better served if communication gaps were reduced.
Muhammad urged the stakeholders to accelerate the clearance of Nigerian Pilgrims at the Madinah Airport, and also provide translators at service points to ease language barrier challenges.
He called on the stakeholders to ensure that shuttle buses were provided with guardians, who are familiar with the routes, to ease movement of pilgrims from airport to their various accommodations.
In his response, the Deputy Chairman of the Saudi Arabian United Agents, Mr Tareq Ghurab, commended the efforts of Nigeria’s Hajj commission that ensured the successes recorded during the 2019 hajj operations.
Ghurab also commended NAHCON for their understanding and cooperation with the agents, and urged them to continue to improve on the management of Hajj operations.
He assured the management of NAHCON of steady presence at the Madinah Airport during the Pilgrim exercise, saying that his line would remain permanently open to receive calls from Pilgrims facing any challenge. (NAN).