Nigerians paid at least ₦2.57 billion to kidnappers between July 2024 and June 2025, according to a new report by SBM Intelligence.
The report said abductors demanded a total of ₦48 billion within the same period.
It recorded 4,722 victims across 997 incidents, with at least 762 deaths linked to abduction-related violence.
Describing kidnapping as a “lucrative criminal enterprise,” SBM said only 5.35 percent of the total ransom demanded was actually paid.
The figures were drawn from open-source tracking of incidents and media-verified cases nationwide.
SBM noted that the latest totals are higher than previous editions, pointing to a worsening kidnap economy.
The North-west remained the most violent region, with Zamfara, Kaduna and Katsina identified as hotspots.
The report stated: “On a geopolitical zone count, the Northwest leads across both indicators: 425 incidents, accounting for 42.6 percent of the total number of reported incidents, and the total number of people abducted (2,938), accounting for 62.2 percent of the total.
“In comparison, the Southwest presents the best figures — 5.3 percent of total incidents — while it also has the least number of people kidnapped, with 144 kidnap victims (3 percent of the total).”
Katsina recorded the highest number of incidents at 131, while Zamfara logged the highest number of victims at 1,203 — more than a quarter of the national total.
In the South-south, kidnappers in one case in Delta state demanded ₦30 billion, a large share of the nationwide ransom tally.
Although demands topped ₦48 billion, only ₦2.57 billion — about $1.66 million — was paid.
“Borno ranks the highest in ransom paid, but just one case bumps the state up the rankings: the ₦766 million that was paid to the kidnappers of Justice Haruna Mshelia of the Borno State High Court, who was abducted in September 2024,” SBM said.
It noted that Boko Haram “got the largest share of ransom paid in this period.”
Out of ₦124 million paid as ransom in Kwara, the report said an al-Qaeda-linked group led by Mallam Mamuda collected ₦100 million, representing 80 percent of the total amount.
The think tank said Islamist groups “got 33.7 percent of the ransom paid in the period under review, blurring the line between ideology and convention.”
It added that the consequences of the kidnapping economy “are national in scale.”
It said: “Agricultural production falters as farmers face extortion, rural economies collapse under insecurity, and state legitimacy erodes.
“In the North, mass abductions threaten entire communities and food security; nationwide, the crime’s ‘democratisation’ reflects a society where desperation breeds predation.”
The report criticised government responses, saying “sporadic arrests and rhetorical condemnations” fail to address root causes.
It warned that the kidnap industry’s profitability, fuelled by weak law enforcement and economic hardship, will persist without disruption of networks and financing flows.
“Unless security forces dismantle these networks and address root causes — poverty, unemployment, and weak law enforcement — the cycle of kidnappings, ransoms, and deaths will continue unchecked, leaving ordinary Nigerians in perpetual fear,” the report said.