Regardless of this, the work continued to expand. Wilfred Gooch, branch overseer in Nigeria at the time, later wrote: “So much latent interest was there that within six weeks 105 persons had joined the pioneer [Brother Akintoundé] in field service. During the next few months, this pioneer continued to spread the good news in nearby towns, and a fine increase continued—a peak of 301 publishers of the Kingdom being reached in July 1948.”

By January 1949, there were three congregations in Benin—Porto-Novo, Lokogbo, and Cotonou.