‘We cleared NDC’s $7.8M Hajj debt’ – Ben Abdallah counters 2025 taskforce
In a statement, he revealed that the NPP government inherited a $7.8 million debt from the previous NDC-led Hajj Board in 2017, which included payments from 425 stranded pilgrims.
The immediate past Chairman of the Hajj Board, Alhaji Ben Abdallah Banda, has dismissed claims by the 2025 Hajj Task Force regarding outstanding debts, insisting that the issue must be viewed in its full historical context.
In a statement, he revealed that the NPP government inherited a $7.8 million debt from the previous NDC-led Hajj Board in 2017, which included payments from 425 stranded pilgrims.
“Through the intervention of President Akufo-Addo and Vice President Bawumia, these pilgrims were eventually airlifted,” he noted.
Alhaji Banda clarified that at the end of the NPP’s tenure in 2024, the outstanding debt was $4,859,250, as captured in the official handing-over notes. He criticized attempts to discuss the current debt without acknowledging the 2017 inheritance.
“Governance is a continuum, inheriting both assets and liabilities. It is only fair to present the full picture.”
Attributing the debt to foreign exchange fluctuations, he urged the new Hajj Task Force to be transparent in their engagements “to avoid unnecessary disaffection within the Muslim community.”
Read Alhaji Ben Abdallah Banda’s full statement below
06/02/2024
RESPONSE TO THE 2025 HAJJ TASK FORCE ON LEGACY DEBT
We note with concern, claims made by the leader of the interim Hajj Taskforce, Hon. Collins Dauda, at the Hajj 2025 package announcement and wish to respond as follows:
1. At the beginning of the mandate of the former President H.E Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo in 2017, we inherited a debt of $7.8million US Dollars from the previous Hajj managers in 2016 under the NDC administration.
2. The above legacy debt included Four Hundred and Twenty-Five (425) fully paid prospective pilgrims who could not be airlifted to perform their hajj in 2016 and were entitled to either a refund or rebooking for the subsequent Hajj seasons. Through the instrumentality of the then President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo and Vice President Alhaji Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, the stranded persons were airlifted.
3. At the end of our tenure in 2024, a total debt of $4,859,250 is what was left behind as contained in our handing over notes. This information was shared with the new administration in the handing over notes delivered to the Chief of Staff at the Presidency.
4. The attempt therefore to refer to the current legacy debt without reference to the legacy debt inherited in 2017 is most unfair and unfortunate because it does not represent a full disclosure of the genesis of the current legacy debt. It is trite that governance is a continuum inheriting both assets and liabilities.
5. Indebtedness from organising Hajj arise as a result of various factors, the key being the fluctuations of the foreign exchange market.
6. We call on the taskforce to always give the full historical antecedents of the legacy debt in order not to cause disaffection within the Muslim Community.
7. The erstwhile Hajj Board wishes the current Hajj Taskforce well in this year’s Hajj operations.
SIGNED
Hon. Alhaj Ben Abdallah Banda Esq.
Fmr. Hajj Board Chairman
Reporting By Jonathan Ofori, Asaase Newsroom
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