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…1,142 killed, 7,825 people abducted in 11 months
NIGERIA’S kidnap-for-ransom crisis is evolving from a fragmented criminal enterprise into a more organised and financially consequential business, with at least N12 billion which may have been recorded in ransom payments over recent reporting cycles, findings from SBM Intelligence revealed on Thursday.
According to its latest report titled; The Capture of Nigeria’s Kidnap Economy, the country’s kidnapping economy has undergone a striking transformation as between July 2025 and June 2026, 7,825 people were abducted in 1,713 kidnapping and related incidents, representing a 66 per cent increase in victims from the previous cycle.
The report also stated that at least 1,142 people were killed during the period.
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But the most significant change is not simply the number of people abducted. It is the money owing from those abductions.
SBM Intelligence recorded N22.86 billion in ransom demands during the year, but victims and their families paid N7.78 billion. That amount was more than three times the N2.56 billion recorded in the previous cycle (2025), even though total ransom demands fell by more than half so far his year from N48 billion.
As a result, the ransom collection rate jumped from 5.35 per cent to 34 per cent so far. The figures point to an increasingly concentrated and sophisticated market. Specially, in 2020, about N106.3 million, N200 million in 2022, N3 million in 2023, N52.55 million in 2024, N766 million in 2025 and N5 million so far this year, collectively meant that the combined value of these six annual single-incident highs means that at least N6.128 billion was paid in the reporting cycles.
The report also noted that a single faction of Boko Haram, Jama’atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda’awati Wal-Jihad (JAS), accounted for approximately N7 billion, about 90 per cent of all recorded ransom payments, from only eight incidents.
