By Highered

What has Oyedepo himself got to say about the Forbes Ranking?

In an Interview with Reuters in 2014 Oyedepo said the following When asked about the $150 million Forbes’ estimate of his fortune, he said: “For me, to have fortune means someone who has what he needs at any point in time. I don’t see myself as having $150 million stacked up somewhere. Whatever way they found their figures, I am only able to say I am blessed by the Lord.”

He added that 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 told Reuters that the church has employed more than 18,000 people in Nigeria alone.

Source:
https://mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idUSKCN0I104B20141012



[b]Why is the $150 Million USD tag an insult to Oyedepo?
Saying Oyedepo is worth 150 million USD is saying that his needs can't be met above 150 million USD. It is putting his capacity within a financial limitation when it is truly within the confines of God's capacity. Why boast of owning 150 million USD when God promised in Phil4:16 to supply all your needs according to his riches in Christ Jesus. The supply of Christ is infinite and is not limited to that persons capacity. The true financial worth of a child of God lies in Jesus.


How did Forbes come about the 150 million USD claim?


First of all to address that report we need to go back to the initial Forbes report in 2011


The Blogger who posted this on June 27, 2011 at 12:22pm on Forbes Magazine's Website goes by the name Mfonobong Nsehe.
According to Nsehe

"After the blog post I wrote in May about Nigerian pastors owning private jets, I was bombarded with emails from readers requesting to know the richest pastors in Nigeria. So I set out to investigate the assets of some of Nigeria’s most prominent pastors, and I came up with conservative estimates of their fortunes. I contacted representatives for all of the pastors and all except Matthew Ashimolowo’s representative confirmed ownership of the assets I list. Representatives for Pastor Ashimolowo did not respond to my emails."


Source: https://www.google.com.ng/amp/s/www.forbes.com/sites/mfonobongnsehe/2011/06/07/the-five-richest-pastors-in-nigeria/amp/

So first of all this blogger applied to get information from Churches regarding the Assets of the Pastors. Which he mostly didn't get so he most likely tallied all of the Church's property alongside the Pastors 'assets' and made his conservative estimate since he couldn't identify the difference. Meaning he had calculated what he believed was the financial value of the Universities, the non existent four jets(all which he cited) to come up with his 'conservative estimate'.

Now all of the universities, jet, books are actually properties of the Church and not one particular person. Because they were all established by the Collective funds of the Church and are registered under the World Missions Agency - which is the mission arm of the Church. To tally them as properties of Oyedepo would be tantamount to accruing all Hospitals, Schools owned by the Catholic Church or Anglican to Pope Francis or ArchBishop Welby.

While Bishop Oyedepo serves as the Life President of WMA, he would remain the Executive Custodian of these Church Assets alongside the Board Of Trustees of the said Organization till his exit in which another President would inevitably have to be appointed.

Secondly, Mfonobong Clearly never went nor gained access to Covenant, Landmark Universities nor the Church's Hangar to assess the financial value or legal ownership of the said institutions or jet before coming up with his spurious 150 million USD claim.

Lalasticlala

Prof. Lalasticlala, this is insightful oh.