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VENO tv: FEATURE KIDNAPPING ECONOMY: HOW RANSOM BECAME ONE OF NIGERIA’S BIGGEST UNDERGROUND CRIMINAL ENTERPRISES — DR. VICTOR ADOJI
Date: 15-09-26
Kidnapping in Nigeria has evolved from isolated acts of criminality into a sophisticated and highly profitable underground enterprise, sustained by networks of kidnappers, informants, financiers, negotiators, arms suppliers, transporters and other facilitators.
The disturbing development has created what can increasingly be described as a ransom economy, where human beings are turned into commodities and desperate families are forced to pay huge sums for the freedom—and sometimes the survival—of their loved ones.
THE TRILLION-NAIRA QUESTION
The National Bureau of Statistics’ Crime Experience and Security Perception Survey estimated that Nigerian households paid about ?2.23 trillion in ransom between May 2023 and April 2024.
The survey reported that 65 per cent of households affected by kidnapping paid ransom, with the average payment estimated at approximately ?2.67 million.
Because kidnapping is an underground crime and many cases are never formally reported, determining the exact amount paid remains extremely difficult. The NBS figures are survey estimates rather than a record of individually verified ransom transactions.
SBM DATA SHOWS A GROWING CRIMINAL ECONOMY
Incident-based monitoring by SBM Intelligence gives another picture of the scale of the crisis.
Between July 2024 and June 2025, SBM recorded 997 kidnapping incidents involving at least 4,722 abducted persons. Kidnappers demanded roughly ?48 billion, while at least ?2.57 billion was confirmed as having been paid.
More recent figures show that the problem has worsened.
In its 2026 report, covering July 2025 to June 2026, SBM Intelligence recorded 1,713 kidnapping and kidnapping-related incidents involving at least 7,825 abducted persons, representing a sharp increase from the previous reporting period.
The organisation said about ?22.9 billion was demanded in ransom, while approximately ?7.78 billion was paid. At least 1,142 people were also reported killed during kidnapping-related incidents.
These figures reinforce the argument that kidnapping is no longer merely a security problem—it has developed an economic structure of its own.
FAMILIES ARE LOSING EVERYTHING
The damage goes far beyond the cash handed to kidnappers.
Families affected by abductions are often forced to sell land, livestock, vehicles, jewellery, businesses and other valuable possessions to raise ransom.
Others borrow heavily or depend on relatives, friends, churches, mosques and entire communities to contribute towards securing the release of kidnapped loved ones.
Some families remain indebted long after their relatives have returned home.
In this way, kidnapping does not merely steal people—it destroys household wealth accumulated over many years.
FARMERS, BUSINESSES AND COMMUNITIES PAY THE PRICE
Businesses operating in high-risk areas are forced to spend more on security, transportation and protection.
Some investors simply stay away.
For farmers, the situation can be devastating. Fear of kidnapping has forced some agricultural workers away from their farms or restricted the number of hours they can safely work.
When farmers cannot access their land, food production falls. Reduced production contributes to shortages and higher food prices.
Schools, markets, highways and transport routes are equally affected as communities reorganise everyday activities around the threat of abduction.
Kidnapping therefore imposes costs even on Nigerians who have never personally been kidnapped.
HOW THE KIDNAPPING BUSINESS WORKS
Modern kidnapping operations can involve several layers.
Informants may identify potential victims and provide information about their movements, financial strength or family connections.
Surveillance may then be carried out before an attack.
Other participants provide weapons, motorcycles, vehicles, food, hideouts and communication facilities.
Negotiators contact families, issue threats and determine ransom amounts.
There may also be people responsible for collecting or moving the ransom proceeds.
The money can subsequently disappear into legitimate-looking businesses, property, informal financial systems or other assets.
That makes financial intelligence, asset tracing and prosecution of facilitators essential weapons in the fight against kidnapping.
FROM HOSTAGE-TAKING TO MASS ABDUCTION
Nigeria’s kidnapping crisis developed over several years.
In the Niger Delta, hostage-taking was at different periods associated with militancy, political grievances and demands directed at oil companies and government.
The mass abductions of schoolchildren, including the Chibok and Dapchi cases, demonstrated the enormous national and international consequences of kidnapping.
From the late 2010s, armed groups and bandit networks expanded kidnapping-for-ransom operations across parts of the North-West and North-Central.
States including Zamfara, Katsina, Kaduna and Niger became particularly vulnerable to repeated attacks and mass abductions.
FOLLOW THE MONEY
Nigeria cannot win the war against kidnapping through military and police operations alone.
Security agencies must also attack the financial infrastructure supporting the crime.
This means identifying financiers, tracing ransom proceeds, investigating money-laundering channels, recovering criminal assets and prosecuting people who knowingly provide financial, logistical or operational support to kidnapping networks.
Greater scrutiny is required around suspicious cash movements, property purchases and other financial channels that criminal networks could exploit.
The objective must be to make kidnapping financially unattractive.
GOVERNMENT MUST ALSO PROVIDE ALTERNATIVES
Security enforcement must be accompanied by economic development.
Communities vulnerable to criminal recruitment need legitimate opportunities.
Government intervention in agriculture, vocational training, education, youth employment and community-based security could help reduce the number of vulnerable young people available for recruitment by criminal organisations.
Restoring security would produce enormous economic benefits.
Farmers would return to their fields.
Schools could operate without constant fear.
Businesses could reopen.
Transportation would improve.
Investors would regain confidence.
DESTROY THE ECONOMICS OF KIDNAPPING
Nigeria’s challenge is therefore not simply to arrest kidnappers after an abduction.
The country must dismantle the economic system that makes kidnapping profitable.
Progress should be measured through concrete results: reductions in kidnapping incidents and ransom payments, increased arrests and convictions, recovery of assets belonging to criminal networks, reopening of schools, restoration of farming activities and creation of legitimate employment in vulnerable communities.
As long as kidnapping remains highly profitable while the risk of arrest and conviction remains comparatively low, criminal networks will continue to attract recruits.
Nigeria must therefore fight the menace from both directions—dismantle the gangs carrying out abductions and destroy the financial networks sustaining them.
The objective should be unmistakable:
Make kidnapping less profitable.
Make participation more dangerous.
Make legitimate economic activity more attractive.
Only then can Nigeria begin to dismantle an underground ransom economy built on fear, violence and the desperation of innocent victims.
VENO tv
Giving Voice to Issues That Matter
Date: 15-09-26
Kidnapping in Nigeria has evolved from isolated acts of criminality into a sophisticated and highly profitable underground enterprise, sustained by networks of kidnappers, informants, financiers, negotiators, arms suppliers, transporters and other facilitators.
The disturbing development has created what can increasingly be described as a ransom economy, where human beings are turned into commodities and desperate families are forced to pay huge sums for the freedom—and sometimes the survival—of their loved ones.
THE TRILLION-NAIRA QUESTION
The National Bureau of Statistics’ Crime Experience and Security Perception Survey estimated that Nigerian households paid about ?2.23 trillion in ransom between May 2023 and April 2024.
The survey reported that 65 per cent of households affected by kidnapping paid ransom, with the average payment estimated at approximately ?2.67 million.
Because kidnapping is an underground crime and many cases are never formally reported, determining the exact amount paid remains extremely difficult. The NBS figures are survey estimates rather than a record of individually verified ransom transactions.
SBM DATA SHOWS A GROWING CRIMINAL ECONOMY
Incident-based monitoring by SBM Intelligence gives another picture of the scale of the crisis.
Between July 2024 and June 2025, SBM recorded 997 kidnapping incidents involving at least 4,722 abducted persons. Kidnappers demanded roughly ?48 billion, while at least ?2.57 billion was confirmed as having been paid.
More recent figures show that the problem has worsened.
In its 2026 report, covering July 2025 to June 2026, SBM Intelligence recorded 1,713 kidnapping and kidnapping-related incidents involving at least 7,825 abducted persons, representing a sharp increase from the previous reporting period.
The organisation said about ?22.9 billion was demanded in ransom, while approximately ?7.78 billion was paid. At least 1,142 people were also reported killed during kidnapping-related incidents.
These figures reinforce the argument that kidnapping is no longer merely a security problem—it has developed an economic structure of its own.
FAMILIES ARE LOSING EVERYTHING
The damage goes far beyond the cash handed to kidnappers.
Families affected by abductions are often forced to sell land, livestock, vehicles, jewellery, businesses and other valuable possessions to raise ransom.
Others borrow heavily or depend on relatives, friends, churches, mosques and entire communities to contribute towards securing the release of kidnapped loved ones.
Some families remain indebted long after their relatives have returned home.
In this way, kidnapping does not merely steal people—it destroys household wealth accumulated over many years.
FARMERS, BUSINESSES AND COMMUNITIES PAY THE PRICE
Businesses operating in high-risk areas are forced to spend more on security, transportation and protection.
Some investors simply stay away.
For farmers, the situation can be devastating. Fear of kidnapping has forced some agricultural workers away from their farms or restricted the number of hours they can safely work.
When farmers cannot access their land, food production falls. Reduced production contributes to shortages and higher food prices.
Schools, markets, highways and transport routes are equally affected as communities reorganise everyday activities around the threat of abduction.
Kidnapping therefore imposes costs even on Nigerians who have never personally been kidnapped.
HOW THE KIDNAPPING BUSINESS WORKS
Modern kidnapping operations can involve several layers.
Informants may identify potential victims and provide information about their movements, financial strength or family connections.
Surveillance may then be carried out before an attack.
Other participants provide weapons, motorcycles, vehicles, food, hideouts and communication facilities.
Negotiators contact families, issue threats and determine ransom amounts.
There may also be people responsible for collecting or moving the ransom proceeds.
The money can subsequently disappear into legitimate-looking businesses, property, informal financial systems or other assets.
That makes financial intelligence, asset tracing and prosecution of facilitators essential weapons in the fight against kidnapping.
FROM HOSTAGE-TAKING TO MASS ABDUCTION
Nigeria’s kidnapping crisis developed over several years.
In the Niger Delta, hostage-taking was at different periods associated with militancy, political grievances and demands directed at oil companies and government.
The mass abductions of schoolchildren, including the Chibok and Dapchi cases, demonstrated the enormous national and international consequences of kidnapping.
From the late 2010s, armed groups and bandit networks expanded kidnapping-for-ransom operations across parts of the North-West and North-Central.
States including Zamfara, Katsina, Kaduna and Niger became particularly vulnerable to repeated attacks and mass abductions.
FOLLOW THE MONEY
Nigeria cannot win the war against kidnapping through military and police operations alone.
Security agencies must also attack the financial infrastructure supporting the crime.
This means identifying financiers, tracing ransom proceeds, investigating money-laundering channels, recovering criminal assets and prosecuting people who knowingly provide financial, logistical or operational support to kidnapping networks.
Greater scrutiny is required around suspicious cash movements, property purchases and other financial channels that criminal networks could exploit.
The objective must be to make kidnapping financially unattractive.
GOVERNMENT MUST ALSO PROVIDE ALTERNATIVES
Security enforcement must be accompanied by economic development.
Communities vulnerable to criminal recruitment need legitimate opportunities.
Government intervention in agriculture, vocational training, education, youth employment and community-based security could help reduce the number of vulnerable young people available for recruitment by criminal organisations.
Restoring security would produce enormous economic benefits.
Farmers would return to their fields.
Schools could operate without constant fear.
Businesses could reopen.
Transportation would improve.
Investors would regain confidence.
DESTROY THE ECONOMICS OF KIDNAPPING
Nigeria’s challenge is therefore not simply to arrest kidnappers after an abduction.
The country must dismantle the economic system that makes kidnapping profitable.
Progress should be measured through concrete results: reductions in kidnapping incidents and ransom payments, increased arrests and convictions, recovery of assets belonging to criminal networks, reopening of schools, restoration of farming activities and creation of legitimate employment in vulnerable communities.
As long as kidnapping remains highly profitable while the risk of arrest and conviction remains comparatively low, criminal networks will continue to attract recruits.
Nigeria must therefore fight the menace from both directions—dismantle the gangs carrying out abductions and destroy the financial networks sustaining them.
The objective should be unmistakable:
Make kidnapping less profitable.
Make participation more dangerous.
Make legitimate economic activity more attractive.
Only then can Nigeria begin to dismantle an underground ransom economy built on fear, violence and the desperation of innocent victims.
VENO tv
Giving Voice to Issues That Matter
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