Matthew Ashimolowo

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Matthew Ashimolowo (b 17 March 1952 in Nigeria) is the Senior Pastor of Kingsway International Christian Centre in London

Under his leadership the membership of the church has grown from 300 adults to almost 8,000 in eight years. The Nigerian-born former Muslim is steering the church, commonly known as KICC, towards its vision of 25,000 members by the year 2010.^[1]

His Winning Ways programme is aired daily on Premier Radio (London) and Spirit FM (Amsterdam) and also viewed on television by a potential audience of over 200 million in Nigeria, Ghana, Zimbabwe, TV Africa, the Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN)and Europe on The God Channel and Inspirational Network.^{[citation needed]} Matthew is also the author of 33 books including the highly acclaimed Prayer Power series.^{[citation needed]} He is married to Yemisi Ashimolowo with two sons, Tobi and Tomi.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Financial irregularities

The charity behind Kingsway International Christian Centre (The King's Ministries Trust) was investigated by the Charity Commission of England and Wales between 2002 and 2005. A report of the inquiry was released in October 2005.^[2] The report concluded that there had been serious misconduct and mismanagement in the administration of the charity. At an early stage in the investigation, it was considered that the charity's assets were at risk, and control was removed from the existing trustees and placed in the hands of an independent external company (the accountancy and management consultancy practice KPMG), who regularised the charity's affairs.

The report alleged that Matthew Ashimolowo acted as both a trustee and a paid employee of the charity, which is against UK charity law, and was responsible for approving payments and benefits to himself and his wife, Yemisi, totalling more than £384,000. Benefits received included free accommodation for himself and family,including an £80,000 car and purchase of a Florida timeshare property for £13,000 using a charity credit card, and over half a million pounds paid out to Ashimolowo's private companies, which were operated from church property and had unclear business relationships with the charity.