Nigeria Excluded From Saudi Arabia Makkah Route Hajj Initiative

[Abdulwahid]

Saudi Arabia has started receiving the first groups of international pilgrims for the 2026 Hajj through the Makkah Route Initiative. This programme is designed to make travel easier by allowing pilgrims to complete important entry procedures before leaving their home countries, helping them avoid long delays after arriving in Saudi Arabia.

On April 18, 2026, Saudi Minister of Transport and Logistic Services, Saleh Al Jasser, welcomed the first Makkah Route flight at King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah. The flight, operated by Saudia, arrived from Bangladesh carrying 376 pilgrims, officially marking the beginning of the initiative for the 2026 Hajj season.

The Makkah Route Initiative allows pilgrims to complete visa processing, biometric registration, passport checks, customs clearance, and health verification at selected airports in their own countries before departure. This means that when they arrive in Saudi Arabia, they can travel directly to their hotels in Makkah or Madinah without going through long airport procedures again.

The programme is expected to serve more than 179,000 pilgrims during the 2026 Hajj season. Since it started in 2017 under Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030 and expanded in 2019, it has helped more than 1.25 million pilgrims. It is currently available in 10 countries, including Morocco, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Türkiye, Côte d'Ivoire, Maldives, Senegal, and Brunei Darussalam.

Despite having the largest Hajj quota in Africa, Nigeria has still not been included in the Makkah Route Initiative. One major reason may be Nigeria's decentralised Hajj departure system, where pilgrims leave from many airports such as Lagos, Abuja, Bauchi, Kaduna, Kebbi, Maiduguri, and Ilorin, with Gateway International Airport in Ogun State also expected to join.

Experts say that having many departure points makes the programme more difficult and expensive because Saudi Arabia would need to provide immigration officers, biometric machines, baggage systems, and logistics staff at several Nigerian airports. Many believe Nigeria may only join the initiative if it reduces the number of departure centres and creates a more centralised Hajj processing system for future pilgrims.

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