Senate wants N200 to dollar rate

Nigerian Senate on Thursday urged the Federal Government to give N200 to dollar concession to the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON) and the Nigeria Christian Pilgrims Commission (NCPC) once in every year.
This was part of the recommendations by the Committee on Foreign Affairs on “The Extortion of Pilgrims by the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria’’ presented by the Chairman, Senator Monsurat Sunmonu, at plenary.

Part of the 10-point recommendation by the committee was that the Federal Government should hold discussions with Saudi Arabia authorities.
Sunmonu said that the consultation with the Saudi government was to review the 50-50 carriage of pilgrims between Nigeria and Saudi Arabian airlines.
“This is with a view to providing opportunities for more indigenous Nigerian airlines to participate in the Hajj operations. This will give Nigeria varieties in choosing the air carrier.

“The National Hajj Commission of Nigeria should expedite action on the establishment of Hajj Savings Schemes in compliance with Section 7(1 and 2) of the NAHCON Act.
“The Nigeria Government and its economic team must do everything possible to improve on the Nigerian monetary policy which would expectedly guarantee a long-time stable relationship of the Naira with other currencies,” she said.
In his remarks, President of the Senate, Dr Bukola Saraki, said “we passed the 2017-2019 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and based on it, we have passed what should be the exchange rate which is N305 to a dollar.

“We should make laws that are truly going to guide our people because we have MTEF which says the exchange is N305.
“If with passing MTEF nobody should be given N200, but businessmen are getting N200, then, definitely pilgrims deserve N200 as well,” he added.