How Banks Give Loans to Pastors to Be Paid Back with Money from Crusades

Israel Ogundipe, a pastor from the Celestial Church of Christ and the head of Genesis Global Ministry in Lagos, recently talked about a surprising offer he got from a bank. 

They offered him a bank loan of N1 billion, which he would need to pay back with the money he made from his church’s crusades.

He discussed this on a show with Ifedayo Olarinde, also known as Daddy Freeze, a famous Nigerian radio host. Ogundipe said the bank reached out to him with this offer to help him grow his ministry around the world. The bank even showed him a list of other churches that had taken similar big loans, with some up to N4 billion.

Ogundipe explained how the bank wanted him to pay back the loan using the money his church made from monthly events like revivals and crusades. 

This idea worried him because he wondered if it was right and possible to keep organising big events just to pay off the loan.

In the past, Ogundipe had legal issues when he was accused in 2020 of cheating a London-based architect and taking her property for himself. He faced charges of stealing, illegally taking over property, making fake documents, and fraud.

He was found guilty of taking N14 million and £12,000 from the victim between 2002 and 2005.