Nigeria’s ‘abduction industry’ has entrenched itself as a booming criminal enterprise with N2.56 billion ($1.66 million) paid in ransoms and 4,722 civilians abducted in just 12 months (between July 2024 and June 2025), according to a new analytical report by SBM Intelligence.
The alarming statistics is making what was just a symptom of insecurity in the country transforming into a structured criminal economic enterprise.
The SBM Intelligence, an Africa-focused geopolitical research and strategic communications consulting firm, disclosed that the horror of a booming kidnapping industry is being fueled by widespread poverty, rising unemployment and the persistent devaluation of the naira.
The report titled “Locust Business: The Economics of Nigeria’s Kidnap Industry,” which tracked incidents between mid-2024 and mid-2025 reveals that at least 4,722 civilians were abducted nationwide, underscoring the growing scale and sophistication of kidnapping networks.
It noted that “kidnapping for ransom has emerged as a pervasive and destabilising criminal enterprise in Nigeria, one that capitalises ruthlessly on the country’s economic fragility. While precise ransom figures remain obscured by victims’ fears of reprisals and institutional opacity, the escalating financial burden on communities is undeniable.”
A breakdown of the report shows that the Northwest region of the country remains the epicentre of abductions, with Katsina State recording the highest number of kidnap-related incidents (131), followed closely by Kaduna (123), Zamfara (113), and Niger (40). However, Zamfara topped the list for the actual number of victims with 1,203 people kidnapped, accounting for over 25 per cent of all recorded abductions.
While the North remains most severely impacted, the report highlights that kidnapping is becoming increasingly decentralised, with the Southeast and South-South regions experiencing targeted religious abductions and financially motivated crimes.
The SBM Intelligence’s findings also show a stark divergence between ransom payments in naira and their dollar equivalents, a reflection of Nigeria’s ongoing currency crisis. While ransom demands have surged in naira terms, the dollar value has stagnated or declined due to sharp devaluation.
“In the 2022 reporting period, N653 million in ransom payments amounted to approximately $1.13 million.
By 2023, even though N1 billion was paid, the dollar equivalent dropped below $1 million. In the latest cycle, despite a record N2.56 billion being paid, the sum translates to just $1.66 million.
“This divergence shows that criminals are demanding higher naira ransoms to make up for lost value. The collapse of the currency has turned kidnapping into a hedge against inflation,” the report revealed.
SBM Intelligence said in the report that the federal government’s response, largely reactive and focused on arrests, has failed to tackle the root causes of the crisis: widespread poverty, rising under-employment, and under-resourced law enforcement agencies.
Former Minister of Education, Oby Ezekwesili, speaking in a monitored interview on CNN, said: “Seven years ago when Chibok girls were abducted, my fear was that if we did not give justice to those school children at that time, it was going send a wrong signal and incentivize a behavior where savages will clearly kidnap school kids or anybody on the street or in their offices. Hence, I actually saw all these coming and now it has turned to a full blown industry. This is a sign of poor governance. When governance is gone, these things happen.
“There are no easy answers to how we can tackle this but when a menace that is clearly abhorrent, happens in a society, there is no excuse for leaders to dilly-dally on how to take preventive actions. In effect, there is a necessity for the institutions and states to function well, every loophole for these dare-devils to pass through has to be fixed urgently”.
For its part, SBM Intelligence, said that the perverse dynamic demonstrates how economic instability fuels criminal innovation, with kidnappers demanding ever-higher sums to compensate for the naira’s collapse, effectively transferring the country’s financial woes onto traumatised families.
“Breaking this cycle demands urgent, systemic action. Disrupting financial networks through advanced tracing technologies could starve kidnappers of profits, while economic stabilisation might reduce recruitment pools. But without coordinated strategies targeting both the crime’s profitability and its socioeconomic drivers, Nigeria risks entrenching kidnapping as a grim national industry, one that perpetuates poverty, undermines recovery, and leaves citizens hostage to a failing system.
The time for half-measures has passed; only through dismantling the ransom economy can Nigeria begin reclaiming its security and future”, the report stated
