Why Nigerian churches are getting richer

Posted by Chidinma on Thursday December 25, 2014 at 22:41:45:

In Nigeria, there are two major religions prevalent, the Christian religion and the Islamic religion. Right now, Nigeria is known as the highest exporter of Christian religion in the whole world; churches in Nigeria are getting richer, some churches are said to worth tens of millions of dollars. The question is now why the churches in Nigeria are getting richer? The reasons are as follows:

1. They have a growing number of members: People are the number one asset of any religious organization and that's what churches in Nigeria tend to have. Many Nigerians feel the need to be religious and churches fill in this need by creating a place for worship and fellowship. The more people they have, the more richer they'll become.

2. They have a Constant Source Income: Most churches have thousands of members and hold various church programs, for instance, in a week, there is the normal Sunday or Saturday that is minus other special programs the church may organize; and church members are expected to give their various offerings, tithes and pledges on each service; calculated by the number of worshippers in the church, you see that churches make huge income constantly.

3. They Don’t pay Tax: churches are not considered as formal organisations in Nigeria, so they are not expected to pay taxes. Imagine making such huge income without paying any tax, you are bond to get wealthy fast; though a motion was moved by the senate for churches to start payment of taxes, but it is yet to be passed into a law.

4. They spend less on Expenditure: Churches spend very little in comparison to how much they make; apart from payment of resident pastors, there is nothing much they do with the money they make, because very few of them are into helping charity organizations. Church members also offer voluntary services to the church by doing things like cleaning, arranging and so on for free. Even money for carrying out renovations for the church building is mostly raised from church members