National Hajj Council (also ''National Hajj Committee'' or ''Ghana Hajj Secretariat'' or ''Ghana Hajj Board'') is a division under the Pilgrims Affairs Office of Ghana's

Ministry of Foreign Affairs In many countries, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is the government department responsible for the state's diplomacy, bilateral, and multilateral relations affairs as well as for providing support for a country's citizens who are abroad. The entit ...

. It was set up to oversee the annual airlifting of Ghanaian

Hajj The Hajj (; ar, حَجّ '; sometimes also spelled Hadj, Hadji or Haj in English) is an annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, the holiest city for Muslims. Hajj is a mandatory religious duty for Muslims that must be carried ...

pilgrims to

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the A ...

Cost of Hajj

Cost of Hajj per head experience frequent fluctuations, falling in some years and rising in others mainly due to instability of the

Ghanaian cedi The cedi ( ) (currency sign: GH₵; currency code: GHS) is the unit of currency of Ghana. It is the fourth historical and only current legal tender in the Republic of Ghana. One cedi is divided into one hundred pesewas (Gp). After independen ...

. When pegged against the US dollar however the unit cost has remained fairly steady in the last 5 years.

Leadership

Leadership of the National Hajj Council is appointed by President of Ghana in consultation with the

Chief Imam of Ghana Chief Imam of Ghana (''also referred to as'' National Chief Imam ''or'' Grand Mufti of Ghana, "or simply" Chief Imam) is a de facto title for the highest Muslim religious authority in Ghana. Role Not necessarily leader of any Islamic sect, holder o ...

. Over the years different government administrations have reorganized leadership structure of the Hajj facilitation body under various names.

2017 reconstitution

Akuffo-Addo government in 2017 reconstituted the erstwhile Hajj Committee into three major units supervised by an eleven-member board. The three units are Medical, Communications and an Information Technology directorate; the latter tasked with the responsibility to build and deploy a technology infrastructure to manage all Hajj operations.

Chronology of leaders

Notes

:1. The following persons support leadership of the 2017 Hajj team: Sadique (PhD) - Adviser to Board chairman, and Gariba Malik - Passport issues.

References

{{reflist Government of Ghana