NIGERIA-MEGACHURCHES Nigeria's megachurches: a hidden pillar of Africa's top economy.

Record ID: 236913

  • Title: NIGERIA-MEGACHURCHES Nigeria's megachurches: a hidden pillar of Africa's top economy.
  • Date: 16th October 2014
  • Summary: OGUN, NIGERIA (RECENT) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF PEOPLE WALKING OUT OF THE CHURCH
  • Embargoed: 31st October 2014 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Nigeria
  • Country: Nigeria
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA370J97587XFSRTFNA711RPTJH
  • Story Text: When a guesthouse belonging to one of Nigeria's leading Christian pastors collapsed last month, killing 115 mostly South African pilgrims, attention focused on the multimillion-dollar "megachurches" that form a huge, untaxed sector of Africa's top economy.
    Hundreds of millions of dollars change hands each year in these popular Pentecostal houses of worship, which are modelled on their counterparts in the United States.
    But exactly how much of Nigeria's 510 billion US dollar-GDP they make up is difficult to assess.
    "There's total lack of transparency and accountability in the church system, therefore one hopes that it's only a question of time before... even for the good of the church that there should be transparency if not what happens is that the people that run the church if anything happens to them, then there'll be no records," says Bismarck Rewane, economist and CEO of Lagos consultancy Financial Derivatives.
    Some of the churches can hold more than 200,000 worshippers.
    The surging popularity of the megachurches among the Christians who make up half of Nigeria's 170 million population has propelled their preachers into the ranks of the richest people in Africa.
    In 2011, Forbes magazine estimated the fortunes of Nigeria's five richest pastors.
    David Oyedepo, bishop of the popular Winners' Chapel topped the list, with an estimated net worth of 150 million US dollars.
    As the churches have charity status, they have no obligation to open their books, and certainly don't have to fill in tax returns, an exemption that is increasingly controversial in Nigeria, where poverty remains pervasive despite the oil riches.
    The pastors argue their charity work should exempt them.
    "We use the income of the church to build schools, we use the income of the church to feed... I mean, to serve the need of the poor. For instance, in our church, we run what is called empowerment, membership empowerment scheme. What we do is to give people money, interest free money to start small scale businesses in clusters so that no one gets out with the money and never returns so we do that a lot, and I think last year alone, in this church alone, we gave over half a billion naira invested in the empowerment scheme," said Bishop Oyedepo.
    When Nigeria recalculated its GDP in March, its economy became Africa's biggest, as previously poorly captured sectors such as mobile phones, e-commerce and its prolific "Nollywood" entertainment industry were specifically included in estimates.
    There was no such separate listing for the "megachurches", whose main source of income is "tithe", the 10 percent or so of a follower's income voluntarily given to the church.
    "Being a tither and worshipping God in truth and in spirit is very very necessary because if I want, I don't know what the enemy would have done with me," said Offor Ifeanyi, a worshiper in Ogun, Nigeria.
    "We see giving according to scriptures as the only way to be blessed because God's riches is entrusted to us and entrusted to us to do what God wants done with it so blessing other people is a way of keeping the blessing flowing," said Bishop Oyedepo.
    Oyedepo's headquarters, "Canaanland", is a 10,500-acre (4250-hectare) campus in Ota, outside the commercial capital Lagos.
    It comprises a university, two halls of accommodation, restaurants and a church seating 50,000 people, with a total overflow capacity of five times that.
    Bishop David Oyedepo recently celebrated his 60th birthday at Canaanland.
    Dignitaries present included twice-president Olusegun Obasanjo, former military ruler Yakubu Gowon and Nigeria's agriculture minister.
    Guests cut an elaborate six-tiered cake and popped fizzy grape juice out of champagne bottles. Alcohol is banned in Canaanland.
    Asked about Forbes' estimate of his fortune, Oyedepo says he has no idea how they arrived at their figure.
    "My understanding of fortune is someone who has what he needs to use at any point in time but I don't see myself having 150 million dollars stacked up somewhere or.... whatever way they found their figures, I'm only say that I'm blessed of the Lord," said Oyedepo, whose blessings include a Gulfstream V jet and several BMWs.
    A spokesman said the Winners' Chapel church has 5,000 branches across Nigeria, and 1,000 more in 63 other countries across five continents.
    But Oyedepo's empire also includes two fee-paying universities that he built from scratch, a publishing house for Christian self-help books, and an elite high school.
    "I sold like 100,000 (625 US dollars) a day and depending on the service, if it's a special service, up to 200 (thousand) like 300 thousand) if it's anointing service," said Oluwaseyi Ogunyemi, trader.
    "Look at where we are, there is no single government input on this premises, we supply our water, we make our roads and all of that and then you come back again and say let's tax them, on what," said Oyedepo.
    Oyedepo said he could not estimate the church's total revenues or expenditure on items such as salaries because the various departments, including education, were too diverse.
    Winners Chapel's Corporate Affairs department said the church employed more than 18,000 people in Nigeria alone.
    Oyedepo says the wealth the church gathers is invested in expanding it, and that if he did not use a private jet, he would be unable to oversee its many foreign operations and still return to Ota every week in time for Sunday's worship.
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