Algerians will be deprived from performing Mawlid Nabawi umrah because of banks

Thousands of Algerians will be deprived, this year, from perform the Umrah of the Prophet Mohamad’s birth (Mawlid Nabawi), because of the inability of tourist dealers, from deposit the bank guarantee funds, to freeze the process at the level of the banking institutions 12 days before the Saudi authorities opened the registrations system.

Travel agencies that are concerned with the Umrah season, are waiting to solve the problem of the freezing of the bank guarantee funds, which are estimated at 200,000 Saudi riyals, the equivalent of one billion centimes at the level of the banking institutions, before December,14, the date of opening the Saudi authorities’ registration system of the Umrah season under coordination between the Ministry in charge, the Finance Ministry and the central bank to find a solution that will allow agencies to carry out a bank deposit.

For his part, the representative of the Tourist Agencies National  Syndicate, Ilias Senoussi, told Echorouk, that the representatives of travel agencies are waiting for the response of the Tourism Ministry, after they lifted to the sector’s Minister, Amar Ghoul, a request for the intervention of the Finance Ministry and the Central Bank.

“We do not know if the decision to freeze the process was issued by the Central Bank, on the grounds that some of the owners of tourist agencies were able to deposit their money in a normal way.