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At Living Faith, donations are screened to ensure that money and material things dubiously acquired do not find their way into the church

Forbes listed him as Nigeria’s richest pastor worth $150 million. This is commonly assumed to accrue from tithes, church offerings and fees from the schools he established. But, actually the real fortunes of Bishop David Oyedepo, founder, Living Faith Church, popularly called Winners’ Chapel, remains a mystery.

He could be worth much more or less. Though Forbes did not disclose its basis for this estimation, Newswatch gathered that it might not be unconnected with the value of properties and investments held by the church. “That is how these financial publications make their guesses,” Funso Aberuagba, a banker said.

According to Oyedepo, however, “You can’t estimate my wealth. You can’t estimate it,” he said, adding, “I told people humorously that Forbes magazine said I was $150 million rich but Matthew 16 verse 26 says what will a man give in exchange for his soul if he wins the whole world. So, one redeemed soul is worth much more than all the wealth of the world put together. I’m very blessed, He supplies all my needs according to His riches in glory. So, until that centre dries up, I’m blessed. So, every child of God is very wealthy, whether he’s able to access that wealth or not is another story.”

So, apart from his spiritual exploits, where does he get the stupendous material wealth often spoken about? A great chunk of his wealth comes from grateful worshippers at the church he founded and from other men of God who wish to fulfill certain covenants with God by giving him money, cars or properties. This is called “sowing.” Many of the cars in his fleet, properties and money are acquired through this avenue.

In doing this, he is very cautious. He has established a set of actions that will prevent him from collecting money from dubious sources according to what he said during a series of non-denominational series night prayer meetings he convened and held across Nigeria in 2010. At its Lagos edition at Tafawa Balewa Square, TBS, he prayed for forgiveness if the body of Christ had erred by collecting “blood money” got chiefly from corrupt government officials. “That’s why when we do things (functions) here, we don’t invite government officials, so we steer clear of public funds with every intent and purpose…If they come of their own free will, they are welcome but nobody will run after them to make them do so,” he said.

He applies the same principle to private individuals too. While ministering in Ondo in 1990, Bamidele Olumilua, the state’s former governor, invited him to bless him (Olumilua) at his residence. He did and afterwards, the governor gave him an envelope. But, the bishop humorously asked him “I hope it is your money” to which Olumilua replied, “On my honour, it’s my money.” So, Oyedepo said, “(I asked you) because I am not entitled to government money.” He upholds that principle to date because Nigeria cannot become a corrupt-free nation except people, particularly, the body of Christ stop encouraging corruption. “That’s my own stand.” According to him, “If you keep making demands from people who you say are corrupt, you are only encouraging their corruption. If any church keeps making demand on public officials that you claim are corrupt, then you are placing demand on them for them to be more corrupt.”

The mystery concerning the source of his riches appeared to have been resolved with the huge fees raked in by the educational institutions the church founded. The church has 19 branches of Kingdom Heritage Nursery and Primary School; Faith Academy, a secondary school including Covenant and Landmark Universities, two out of the proposed seven universities the ministry aims to establish. The highest fee charged by Covenant University is N466,000 in Engineering Department. This amount includes fees for tuition, accommodation, medical, library, internet, laboratory and other fees.

But, a source in the ministry who pleads anonymity, said that money realised from the schools is hardly enough to run the institutions, let alone become the source of his wealth because they are ploughed back into running and development of the schools. “The manpower in the schools is of the highest quality. Therefore, their remuneration is very high. Besides, investment in infrastructure is endless, especially in laboratories, halls, information technology services,” he said. 

Even the branches of David Oyedepo Ministries International, DOMI, over which Oyedepo presides as president, is not as profitable as people think. Rather, they gulp a lot of money.  DOMI is the umbrella organisation comprising Living Faith Church World Wide, a global network of churches, World Mission Agency, WMA; the global missionary arm of the church’s operations; Dominion Publishing House; the publishing arm of the church and the Social Development Missions projects made up of hospitals, maternity homes, schools, and others.

Under his guidance, the church also operates a Bible-training programme known as Word of Faith Bible Institute for members and non-members alike to develop knowledge of Christian principles and to develop leaders and future pastors. This institute is run in major branches of the Church worldwide.

Dominion Publishing House is the publishing company which publishes all the 61 books he has written so far and other books by other leaders in the church like Faith, his wife, and Bishop David Abioye, his bosom friend and head of the church in Nigeria. The publishing outfit has printed more than four million copies. But, even at that figure, his critics point out that the sales of the book cannot be the source of his wealth. “When you remove the cost of the high-quality paper, ink and printing these books and the fact that they are sold at discounted prices with the highest-priced at N400, you’ll discover that what accrues from them is pittance,” the source, a worker in the church, said.

Canaanland, the headquarters of the church, is home to his 50,000 capacity cathedral, university, elementary and secondary schools. It also hosts three banks branches and a microfinance bank operated by the church. A source said the micro-finance bank gives soft loans to financially-handicapped members of the church to establish small-scale industries.

He also  owns a bakery, a bottled water processing plant, a petrol station, various restaurants and shopping stores on the site. Yet, they still amount to just a fraction of his wealth.

Indeed, as he earlier said, no one can really estimate Bishop David Oyedepo’s wealth.