PROFILE

Dr David Olaniyi Oyedepo, Chancellor, Covenant University, Canaanland, Ota, in Ogun State of Nigeria, was born on September 27, 1954. He had his early education in Nigeria and later earned a PhD in Human Development from the Honolulu University in Hawaii, USA.

At 51 years of age, Dr Oyedepo has made great impact in many spheres of life, especially in Church ministry, and lately in the educational sector.

An ordained minister of the gospel, whose entrance into full-time ministry in 1981, brought honour, dignity and colour to the hitherto unattractive pulpit ministry, in a country where church was synonymous with poverty.

By dint of hard work, commitment and dedication to vision, Dr Oyedepo is today the President of Living Faith Church Worldwide Inc., which has a network of vibrant churches in over 250 cities and towns in Nigeria. He is the Senior Pastor at Faith Tabernacle, Canaanland, a 50,000-seat capacity church auditorium, renowned to be the largest in the world.

He is also the President of World Mission Agency Inc. (WMA), a Christian missionary organization with mission stations in over 40 nations in Africa, including Europe, Jamaica and America.
Dr Oyedepo has great passion for knowledge and research. This love has translated into establishment of a number of vibrant educational institutions. Some of the institutions established by his ministry include Word of Faith Bible Institute (WOFBI), Faith Academy, Kingdom Heritage Schools and Covenant University.
WOFBI is a reputable leadership training institute, which he founded in 1986 to service the training needs of ministries and to raise men for exploits. The Institute, which has branches in about 36 nations of Africa, has trained over 30,000 men and women to date. Covenant University, an institution he also founded in 2002, is currently pioneering a revolution in education not only in Nigeria but also on the African Continent. With the motto- Promoting Mental Productivity, the University was founded on a profound philosophical departure platform of moving Nigeria’s education from form to skill, from knowledge to empowerment, from figures to future-building, from legalism to realism, from points to facts and from mathematics to “life-matics”

Covenant University under his visionary leadership and mentorship, within its four years of existence, has blazed the trail in Nigeria’s tertiary education. Apart from the foundational feats achieved by the University such as being the first private University in Nigeria to have the fastest approval of its application for operating license by the National Universities Commission (NUC), and the first in the annals of Nigeria tertiary institution to start full academic and administrative activities at its permanent site at take off, with all facilities in place, it is also the first University to have all of its 16 programmes presented for accreditation approved by the NUC. CU today, has become a centre of excellence, and like nectar attracting the best brains in the land.

An acclaimed author and publisher, Dr Oyedepo has written over 60 titles apart from periodicals. He is also Chairman/Publisher of Dominion Publishing House (DPH), a publishing arm of his ministry. DPH has over 4 million prints in circulation to date. It won a Gold Merit Award of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in 1992.

Dr Oyedepo’s dogged commitment to excellence has also won him many honours and awards. These include, “The 20th Century Award for Achievement” by the International Biographic Centre, Cambridge; “International Who Is Who of Intellectuals, 13th Edition” of the International Biographical Centre, Cambridge, England; “Man of Dignity” by Global Care International; “Frontline Christian Author” by ECOWAS International Gold Award and “Inscribed in the Jerusalem 3000 Scroll #102268. Others include “Doctor of Divinity” by Bethel Graduate School of Technology, Riverside, California, USA; “Fellow, Nigerian Academy of Education” and “Fellow, Institute of Strategic Management, Nigeria”.

Married to Pastor Faith, and blessed with godly children, Dr Oyedepo’s hobbies are reading, reasoning, planning and writing.