UPDATED: In an article we published on the 11th of January, 2018 where we stated the Top 10 Richest Pastors in the world, with Oyedepo leading… It has come to our attention that this claim is false; Forbes did not release any list on the 10 richest pastors in the world.
AFP Fact Check traced the claim to a ranking of the world’s richest pastors published by online lifestyle magazine Richest Lifestyle. Although the website is no longer accessible, a version is still available on the online archiving platform Wayback Machine.
In 2014, Richest Lifestyle published a list of the “top 10 richest pastors in the world”, saying its ranking was based on information provided by the Celebrity Net Worth website and Forbes.
That article linked to this 2011 Forbes story about five of Nigeria’s richest pastors. The Forbes journalist said the list was based on “conservative estimates of their fortunes” following an investigation of the “assets of some of Nigeria’s most prominent pastors”.
Importantly, Forbes does not list the world’s richest pastors or compare the Nigerian preachers with their colleagues globally.
Forbes spokeswoman Laura Brusca told AFP Fact Check that the only ranking on its website to do with Nigerian pastors was the one from 2011. “We looked into this further. The only list on Forbes.com with this information is from 2011,” said Brusca.
Forbes Africa managing editor Renuka Methil confirmed the website had not updated the list since then.
You can read the ‘The Five Richest Pastors’ In Nigeria article on Forbes site here. (Note, the article is 9 years old)
Source: AFP Fact Check.
