This Year's Hajj Will Cost 827,000 Birr

The Ethiopian Islamic Affairs Supreme Council has set the total payment for this year's Hajj at 827,000 Birr, and said registration opens on Thursday at 33 coordination stations.

A number that moves households, not just pilgrims

Hajj is, for most Ethiopian families who undertake it, the single largest discretionary outlay of a lifetime, and it is an outlay denominated almost entirely in foreign currency: airfare, accommodation in Mecca and Medina, Saudi ministry fees and ground transport. The Birr figure the council publishes is therefore a reasonably direct read on where the exchange rate has settled, and on how the cost of a dollar-priced package has travelled since the currency was floated.

At 827,000 Birr, the package sits well above the level most salaried households can meet out of income, which is why Hajj saving schemes, family pooling and diaspora remittance all cluster around the registration window. Banks and remittance operators have in past seasons timed promotions to it.

The registration window

Registration runs from Thursday through to January, the council said, handled across the 33 coordination stations rather than centrally. The staged window matters because Saudi quota allocation is settled well before departure, and late registrants in previous seasons have found places gone.

Open

The council has not published a breakdown of the 827,000 Birr — how much is airfare, how much is Saudi-side fees and how much is domestic administration — so there is no public basis for comparing it against last season's package on a like-for-like basis. Nor has it said what Ethiopia's quota is for this season, or how payment is to be staged across the registration period. The figures in this report come from the council's announcement as carried by Tikvah Ethiopia; fact.et has not seen the council's own circular.

Sources: Tikvah Ethiopia, 20 October 2026