{
  "id": 15745514,
  "title": "Faith, jobs and taxation: The cathedral on Oba Akran and Nigeria’s religious economy",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/20/faith-jobs-and-taxation-the-cathedral-on-oba-akran-and-nigerias",
  "topic": "finance",
  "section": "Finance & Markets",
  "published": "2026-10-20T12:59:28.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Nairametrics",
    "slug": "nairametrics",
    "url": "https://nairametrics.com/2026/10/20/faith-jobs-and-taxation-the-cathedral-on-oba-akran-and-nigerias-religious-economy/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "On a Sunday morning in Ikeja, traffic is heavier than on Mondays. Cars are parked in three rows along Oba Akran Avenue, a street that was once meant to serve an industrial estate. Young men in reflective vests direct the cars into compounds where former factories have become places of worship. Some worshippers are old enough to remember the factories that once stood there, employing thousands of people during their heyday. A widespread belief in Nigeria claims that four of the country's five largest employers are churches, but this cannot be verified due to a lack of employer-level data from religious organizations. According to the Nigerian Exchange in 2025, Dangote Cement is the largest employer with 21,418 staff, followed by First Holdco and United Bank for Africa. The largest religious organization in Nigeria, Winners Chapel, reportedly employs more than 18,000 people, which is still substantially smaller than the largest industrial companies. When comparing the US and Nigeria, Walmart employs about 1.6 million people in the US alone, while the entire American religious sector employs around 1.5 million people. This highlights the significant difference in the scale of employment opportunities between religious organizations and other industries in Nigeria. The decline of Nigerian manufacturing is a result of various factors, including unreliable power and gas supplies, rising costs, and changes in trade policies. Many once-successful industries, such as Dunlop, Michelin, and textile mills, have closed down, leading to job losses and a reduction in productive capacity. Churches did not cause this decline, but they have taken advantage of the vacant spaces left behind. In America and Britain, deconsecrated churches are often repurposed into breweries and workshops, whereas in Nigeria, the empty industrial sites are converted into auditoriums for religious gatherings. This disparity in the reuse of empty spaces contributes to the perception that churches have a larger economic impact in Nigeria. The contribution of religious organizations to Nigeria's GDP is minimal compared to other industries. Their output is valued based on the cost of production rather than market price, as there is no direct market for sermons. An estimated 18,000 employees at an average monthly wage of ₦150,000 generate a wage bill of around ₦32.4 billion, which represents the entire measured contribution of religious organizations to GDP. In contrast, a successful manufacturing plant generates additional value by substituting imports, paying taxes, creating downstream demand, and fostering skills development.",
  "summary": "On a Sunday morning on Oba Akran Avenue in Ikeja, the traffic is worse than it is on a Monday. The post Faith, jobs and taxation: The cathedral on Oba Akran and Nigeria’s religious economy appeared first on Nairametrics .",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}