Tunde Kamal, a graduate of economics fromthe Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife,Osun State, will soon shut down his nine-year-old poultry farm in Mowe, OgunState.After battling many losses in the past four years, the 43-year-old father of two said he would have had a rethink about shutting down his business if he had got access to a “friendly” credit facility.“All the banks I turned to shut me down; the only one which eventually agreed to give me a loan would only give me N500,000 out of the N2m that I needed, and guess what! Theinterest rate was 27 per cent. It was killing!”he said.Lamenting the high cost of running a poultry business, Kamal said just like him, many of his colleagues had lost fortunes.He said, “Topping the list of our problems is the high cost of poultry feed, which constitutesabout 75 per cent of the cost of production. Talking about poultry feed, we mainly use grains like maize, soya bean, and groundnut.“A tonne of maize is being sold for as high as N160,000 as against N50,000 in some countries. Soya bean is being sold at about N135,000 per tonne as against N80,000 in some countries. The cost of running a poultryfarm in Nigeria is too high.“And like I said before, our other big problemis the inability to secure a loan to expand our business. When we finally get one, the interest rate could make you commit suicide if you’re not mentally strong.”In search of solace due to his depressing condition, Kamal recently visited his long-time friend, simply called Johnson, whobecame the pastor of a Lagos Pentecostal church shortly after they both graduated fromthe university.To his amazement, Johnson would soon complete his glittering church edifice after securing a N15m loan from one of the commercial banks in the city. After hearing this, poor Kamal was thrown in a lather.“I asked Johnson how he would pay back theloan since he’s not working in the secular sense or running a business, and he told me it would be repaid from the church’s tithes and offerings,” he toldSaturday PUNCH.Kamal has not yet got over the shock since December 2017 when he visited his pastor friend.Churches, commercial banks’ new brideCommercial banks are expected to provide credit facilities to viable profit-making organisations such as corporations, small and medium-sized businesses, but not to religious houses such as churches.But,Saturday PUNCHfindings revealedthat churches — notably those in big commercial cities such as Lagos, Abuja, PortHarcourt and Warri — are the new bride ofcommercial banks, with the latter dishing out millions of naira in loans to churches which need such facilities.Investigations further revealed that churchesuse such credit facilities to purchase land, build auditoriums, and occasionally establish ventures such as schools and hospitals.To get access to credit facilities readily, our correspondent learnt that some churches now take bookkeeping seriously, with some of thememploying accountants and internal auditors.And to pay back their loans, they are expected to open “special” loan accounts with the commercial bank that they are securing a loan from and remit every month an agreed percentage out of the tithes and offerings that they collect from the congregation.A source in one of the commercial banks in Lagos, who is a loan procurement officer, said, “Yes, we give loans to churches, most especially the Pentecostal ones, at an agreed rate; that is, they tell us how much they can beremitting at the end of every month from their tithes and offerings, which are basically their sources of income.“If the church already has an account with usand we know how consistent it is in depositing money with us, it is easier. We just have to open a special loan account for them, wherein they pay back their loan from their tithes and offerings. Some pay the agreed amount every week while some pay every month. It depends on the church’s modality of collecting tithes and offerings.“We, however, don’t just give out loans because they are churches. They must have met certain conditions; for instance, we look at the size of their congregation, account records, consistency of cash flow, and so on.“I know a church that got a N50m loan facility from us about three years ago and they built a lovely auditorium on Victoria Island (Lagos), and now they are paying back. They are conveniently paying us back from their tithes and offerings.”Asked if the bank had given out such a loan facility to a small business in recent times, the official replied in the negative, stating that “somany small businesses are not as lucrative as churches these days.”He said, “In my 17 years of banking experience, seldom do small businesses thrive in Nigeria. They rarely turn in good profits that could make them attract loans. If we aregoing to give you a loan as a small business owner, you have to really convince us that your business is highly profitable. And even atthat, you don’t get millions of naira as loan.
“Churches, on the other hand, are more profitable than small businesses. I have pastorfriends that I’ve helped secure loans. The tithes and offerings are sure to come in everyweek, so they usually have no problem in paying back. And don’t forget that we are also in the business of making profit. We can’tgive out loans to those we are not sure will beable to pay back conveniently.”A Lagos-based psychologist, Dr. Femi Alaofin, said the idea of churches obtaining loans to build auditoriums could be a way of “enticing” and growing membership.He said, “Today, churches want their buildings to be alluring to the people. If your church building looks lovely, there is a likelihood that you will attract more members.“For instance, I have a pastor friend in Ketu (Lagos) who has been toiling day and night to make his church look contemporary; his belief is that if the building looks great, elegantly equipped with lovely musical and sound systems, it will appeal to the rich or at least the middle class.“Once they come to church, they will pay tithes and offerings. And, of course, there areseveral services he holds every month. At each of those services, offerings will be collected. So if my friend has obtained a loan to achieve his dream, you can be sure he will be able to pay back.”‘Churches are more profitable than small businesses’In its 2017 survey of religious beliefs of 68 countries of the world, Zurich, Switzerland-based polling organisation, the WIN/Gallup International, described Nigeria as the second most religious country in the world, after Thailand, with the populace evenly divided between the largely Muslim north and the predominantly Christian south.Moreover, according to 2017 data from the Washington, D.C., United States-based Pew Research Centre, Nigeria has the largest number of Christians in Africa, with a membership of 86.5 million out of the country’s estimated 180 million population.Originating in the form of evangelical studentrevivals, a wave of Pentecostalism had spawned new charismatic churches in the 1960s and 1970s and since then, the new churches have never stopped growing in number; in fact, a 2006 World Economic Forum Pentecostal Survey stated that Pentecostalists accounted for approximately six in every 10 Nigerian Christians.Meanwhile, according to the Harvard Divinity School of the Harvard University, US, unlike their counterparts inOrthodox churches, Pentecostalists believe that to live a more fulfilled life, the people must solve the problem of poverty, a teaching that has attracted hundreds of thousands of the poor and middle class aspiring to get out of poverty.“This approach provided the foundation for many of our Pentecostal churches today, and to attract new members and make the church conducive for them, they tend to spend a lot on building nice edifices. How good-looking your church is determines what class of people come in,” said Alaofin.Explaining to our correspondent why his bank would rather lend money to a church than to a small business, a loan procurement officer in one of the popular commercial banks in Lagos.
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Unfortunately, a country can never develop when churches are industries (producing nothing tangible and simply teaching the same thing over and over again).........

Yet we cry of unemployment n rising cost of commodities.

In the long term, the situation will be devastating.

Lexusgs430:
Unfortunately, a country can never develop when churches are industries (producing nothing tangible and simply teaching the same thing over and over again).........

Sincerely, we still have a long way to go my brother

Omooba224:
Sincerely, we still have a long way to go my brother

It's so sad that countries that are not religious, are more prosperous than we are..........

And we are still carrying religion on our head like hot potatoes or like some bunch of cursed species......

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