The Booming Business of Kidnapping
A recent report by SBM Intelligence revealing that 7,825 people were abducted and N7.78 billion paid in ransom between July 2025 and June 2026 alone shows how lucrative the business of kidnapping has become in Nigeria, which makes it difficult to stop the scourge, Davidson Iriekpen writes
It is no longer news in Nigeria that one of the greatest threats to the country’s security system is kidnapping.
This was further confirmed when the SBM Intelligence revealed a report that no fewer than 7,825 Nigerians were kidnapped in 1,713 incidents between July 2025 and June 2026, representing a 66% increase from the previous year.
The revelations is a disturbing indication that the scourge of kidnapping for ransom is not in any way near abating.
According to the report titled “The capture of the kidnap economy,” the country recorded no fewer than 7,825 abductions, with 895 civilians and 68 security agents killed. A total of 1,411 kidnapping incidents were also recorded.
The report further showed that kidnapping has increasingly become a fast growing organised criminal economy, spreading across every part of the country, with its effects extending beyond the immediate victims to education, agriculture, livelihoods and public confidence in the ability of the state to protect citizens.
While noting that the ransom demanded decreased from N48 billion in the preceding year to N22.9 billion, the firm reported that the actual amount paid more than “tripled” from N2.56 billion to N7.78 billion.
The report also stated that Boko Haram pocketed over 90 per cent of the ransom paid during the period.
Other terror groups, which the report generally categorised as “unaffiliated kidnappers,” got the remaining 10 per cent of the ransom (N719 million) in 146 incidents. Two cases that involved a N53 million ransom were attributed to Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), a Boko Haram breakaway faction. The report also linked armed Fulani herdsmen to three cases, resulting in a N5 million ransom.
According to the report, among the incidents that fetched Boko Haram such a huge amount in ransom were the mass abduction of over 300 students from St Mary’s Catholic School in Papiri, Niger State, and the abduction of 416 people, including children, taken from Ngoshe community in Borno State. While the terror group got N5 billion to release the Ngoshe captives, it pocketed N2 billion in ransom for the release of the Papiri students, the report said. The North accounted for 85 per cent of the kidnap cases recorded with 96 per cent of civilian deaths during the period under review.
Last year, the same SBM Intelligence also released its report titled: “The Locust Business: The Economics of Nigeria’s Kidnap Industry – A 2025 Update” where it stated that between July 2024 and June 2025, kidnappers demanded more than N48 billion in ransom but that N2.56 billion was paid, in 4,722 incidents within the said period.
According to the report, a total of N653.7 million was paid in 2022 and N302 million in 2023.
These grim figures confirm what Nigerians already knew: Kidnapping has become a thriving industry, feeding on fear and state failure to respond effectively as mandated by the Constitution.
Kidnapping in the country has consolidated into a highly structured, profit-seeking industry, widely considered one of the most lucrative criminal enterprises in the country. What was once largely seen as isolated incidents have become a pervasive threat, with victims targeted at homes, schools, religious sites, markets, farms and on highways.
The menace has evolved into a sophisticated commercial value chain involving specialised networks of informants, lookouts, logisticians, and ransom collectors.
From the rural areas and suburban areas, farms, highways to religious houses and schools, no one is really safe anywhere. What began as sporadic abductions has evolved into structured criminal enterprise with deep tentacles among the rogue elements of our police, military and security agencies. Families are forced to abandon their farms, sell their lands, drain their savings, or seek public donations to rescue loved ones. This is not just failure; it is a national shame.
A school of thought feels that the widening gap between the rich and the poor, compounded by greed and the desire among some idle youths to accumulate wealth quickly, has also contributed to the menace. Its low risk and high financial returns have made kidnapping a multimillion-naira enterprise.
Each time people are kidnapped, the victims are not only those affected, Nigeria’s reputation and its economy are also adversely affected.
People hesitate to move outside the cities; tourism business shrinks as people are scared to travel for fear of being kidnapped. Embassies issue regular warnings to their staff and prospective travellers to Nigeria. Many farmers have abandoned their farms in the northern parts of the country out of fear.
The ransom economy now sustains criminal syndicates, finances weapons purchases, and perpetuates a vicious cycle of violence. Despite years of military campaigns, ballooning security budgets, and official pledges, Nigerians remain unprotected. The success of Nigeria’s gallant armed forces is hardly enough, leaving victims with the option of ransom payment.
The persistence of kidnapping exposes deeper governance failures.
Poverty, joblessness, ungoverned spaces, collusion and porous borders create fertile grounds for criminality. Worse still, corruption within security agencies sabotages operations and erodes public confidence. Unless these weaknesses are addressed, the kidnap industry will continue to flourish.
Measures such as SIM registration and the National Identification Number (NIN), which government agencies said would help curb kidnapping and financial crimes, have failed to curb the menace flourish.
More troubling is the ability of abductors to maintain contact with victims’ families over extended periods, while keeping victims within Nigeria, without being successfully tracked by security agencies.
Networks of collaborators and financiers must be dismantled, while communities should be empowered through grassroots policing and economic opportunities. The cost of inaction is not only measured in naira but in national dignity. To allow criminals to rob Nigerian citizens of their freedom is to surrender the country’s sovereignty to criminals and terrorists. That is unacceptable!
There is a growing demand for security agencies to come up with concrete plans to end not just kidnapping but insecurity generally. To achieve that, technology must be deployed more effectively, with telecommunications companies and other relevant stakeholders brought into the fight against a menace that has left many Nigerians financially drained and psychologically traumatised.
Nigeria cannot afford to normalise ransom payment as the price for survival. It must not give in to the criminals. For some years now, the Institute for Economics and Peace has been ranking the country among the most terrorised country in the world on the Global Terrorism Index (GTI).
This is why the federal and state governments must treat kidnapping as a national security emergency, and with the same urgency as terrorism. Security agencies must be retooled, technology and intelligence-driven, and held accountable for results.
