Nigeria’s richest pastor, Bishop David Oyedepo with an estimated net worth of $150 million, has given reasons to justify why Nigerian Mega churches should not pay taxes. While granting an interview with Reuters, Oyedepo whose headquarters, “Canaan land”, is a 10,500-acre (4250-hectare) campus in Ota, that comprises a university, two halls of accommodation, restaurants and a church seating 50,000 people, with a total overflow capacity of five times that, said “There is no single government input on this premises,” “We supply our water, we make our roads, then you … say: ‘Let’s tax them’. For what?”
Defending the income generated from tithes and offerings in his mega church, he said
“We use the income of the church to build schools, we use the income of the church to serve the needs of the poor, and these are non-profit organizations.”
Even though, Bismarck Rewane, economist and CEO of Lagos consultancy Financial Derivatives insists Oyedepo is one of the mega pastors that “don’t submit accounts to anybody. At least six church leaders have private jets, so they have money.”
Oyedepo claimed his Corporate Affairs department has employed more than 18,000 people in Nigeria alone.
He 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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