The debt consisted of a $446,933 debt to catering service providers, $4,429,260 for carrier flights, and about $533,333 for education and teaching services, the taskforce disclosed in a previous press briefing held in February this year.

Mr Alhaji Alhassan Bashir Fuseini, the Head of Corporate Affairs for the Ghana Hajj Taskforce, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency on the sidelines of a sensitisation workshop in Accra on Wednesday, said: “I can tell you that we have settled more than, closer to about 60 per cent of the debt.”

“And inshallah, after this exercise, we have already reached an understanding with them, including caterers and others, to settle the outstanding debt. So, it will be done.”

The workshop was to educate potential pilgrims on the rules governing the Hajj rites.

Participants were also given guidelines on the security arrangements, immigration laws and regulations of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

A similar workshop has been held for potential pilgrims in the northern part of the country.

Speaking on the preparations made so far, Mr Seth Ibrahim Ayi, the Public Relations Officer of the Ghana Hajj Agents Association, said the process had been a learning process for the newly appointed members of the taskforce.

“We make progress along the line but then we come back again due to change of government,” he said.

He called for the institutionalisation of Hajj operations to ensure related activities did not suffer due to change in government.

Sheikh Suleiman Ahmed Mozu , a scholar, said it was incumbent on every Muslim, and for that matter every Hajj pilgrim, to be knowledgeable about the religious rites.

“This orientation is the icon of Hajj and Hajj is about education,” he said.