Nigeria’s kidnapping crisis is taking a more organised and dangerous turn, with criminal groups increasingly relying on mass abductions and ransom payments to sustain their operations, an analysis of new security data has shown.
At least 7,825 Nigerians were abducted in 1,713 incidents between July 2025 and June 2026, while ₦7.78 billion was paid to kidnappers, according to SBM Intelligence.
The figures point to a disturbing shift in the country’s kidnapping economy. Although the total ransom demanded by kidnappers fell sharply from ₦48 billion to ₦22.9 billion, actual payments more than tripled.
The development suggests that kidnapping groups are becoming more selective in their operations, focusing on abductions with a higher likelihood of generating ransom payments.
The most striking finding is the concentration of ransom payments.
Two mass abductions alone accounted for about ₦7 billion of the ₦7.78 billion paid during the year under review.
The Jama’atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda’awati Wal-Jihad (JAS) faction of Boko Haram reportedly collected the money from eight incidents and accounted for about 90 per cent of all ransom payments recorded by SBM.
The figures raise concerns that ransom payments may be strengthening the financial capacity of insurgent groups rather than merely securing the release of individual victims.
North remains kidnapping epicentre
The data also reveals the overwhelming concentration of kidnapping in northern Nigeria.
The North accounted for 93.7 per cent of all victims, with Zamfara emerging as the worst affected state.
Zamfara recorded 236 kidnapping incidents involving 1,921 victims, while mass abductions accounted for a large proportion of the victims nationwide.
The scale of the crisis means kidnapping is no longer only a security problem. It is increasingly affecting education, agriculture, rural livelihoods and the ability of families to remain in vulnerable communities.
Perhaps the most worrying element of the report is that paying ransom does not guarantee that victims will survive.
SBM recorded at least six cases in which victims were killed even after ransom had been paid.
Kidnappers also demanded motorcycles, phones, food, fuel and other items in some incidents, suggesting that some criminal groups are adapting their demands to the financial realities of victims.
With more than 17,000 missing-person cases being tracked by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) nationwide, the kidnapping crisis appears to be part of a wider pattern of forced disappearances.
The data suggests that Nigeria’s challenge is no longer simply how to rescue kidnapped victims.
The bigger challenge is how to dismantle the financial networks that make mass abductions profitable in the first place.
Without disrupting the money, weapons, logistics and recruitment networks behind the crime, ransom payments risk continuing to fuel the very groups responsible for Nigeria’s worsening insecurity.