The screening is expected to last 10 days, according to the Executive Secretary of the board, Hajia Fatimah Abolore Jimoh.

She disclosed this during an enlightenment programme organized for the intending pilgrims this weekend.

No fewer than 1,943 including 10 officials are performing the exercise from Kwara State.

The enlightenment exercise which is the first in the series that would be conducted for would-be pilgrims has been designed to educate them on the do's and don'ts of Hajj, an exercise which has been ordained on every Muslim who has the wherewithal. It is one of the five pillars of Islam.

Hajia Jimoh, who explained that preparation is in top gear to ensure the success of this year's Hajj said the medical screening would also include inoculation of the intending pilgrims.

More importantly, the board would also educate the intending pilgrims on the foreign exchange rate vis-a-vis the naira value, Jimoh added.

This became imperative in view of the recent liberalization introduced to the forex market by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) which has abolished the official rate of N197 to a dollar. The rate is now pegged at N285 to a dollar according to the new policy.

According to the Executive Secretary, Riyadh which is the official currency of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is valued at N90 to one Riyadh while one dollar for instance would be around 3.7 Riyadh. She said pilgrims have to be abreast of the foreign exchange rate to guide their spending while in the holy land.

She said, "As you can see, effort is in top gear now. In actual fact, we have collected more than 80 per cent of the passports and processing for issuance of visas is ongoing. Today's outing is to further enlighten the intending pilgrims on the do's and don'ts of Hajj and to also let them be aware of the importance of medical screening and inoculation. This is why we have called the agencies concerned to come and educate us on the importance of those services which we are about to render to the pilgrims.

"The most important aspect of our programme now is to ensure that all pilgrims are screened to be able to know their well being in terms of health and to tackle any challenge that may be obvious to us from the screening exercise.

"We are more than 90 per cent prepared now. Apart from the medical screening and innoculation, we are going to intensify the enlightenment and sensitization to ensure that they are kept abreast of new guidelines concerning Hajj.

"We also want them to know that we have brought specimen copies of Riyadh. We have brought live copies of the Riyadh so that they can see what 100 Saudi Riyadh is and this is how much it is worth compared to our naira.

"Because of the exchange rate, a Riyadh is about N90 now. It is not stable. A Riyadh is not the same thing as N20, a Riyadh is not the same as N50, a Riyadh is like a N100. So the moment you are bringing out a Riyadh, you should know that you are spending like a N100. 3.7 Riyadh would be like one dollar."