By Tolulope Oke

Kidnappers in Nigeria collected nearly $5.8 million — about ₦7.8 billion — in ransom payments within one year, according to Reuters.

The figure came from a new report by SBM Intelligence, which tracked kidnappings between July 2025 and June 2026.

Reuters valued the $5.79 million ransom haul, which is at ₦7.78 billion using an exchange rate of ₦1,344.74 to the dollar.

The report found that 7,825 people were kidnapped during the period, a 66 per cent increase from the previous year, while at least 1,142 people were killed.

SBM said confirmed ransom payments more than tripled compared with the preceding year.

The security consultancy, however, warned that the actual amount paid to kidnappers could be much higher because many ransom payments are never publicly disclosed.

The figures were compiled from media reports, interviews and other publicly available information.

One of the most striking findings involved Boko Haram.

SBM estimated that a faction of the insurgent group, also known as Jama’atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda’awati Wal-Jihad, received about ₦7 billion in ransom payments.

According to the report, the money came mainly from two mass-abduction incidents in which more than 300 people were seized in each case.

The group accounted for about 90 per cent of recorded ransom payments from kidnappings in the North-East.

The North-West, however, recorded more kidnapping incidents and victims than the North-East.

Reuters noted that kidnap-for-ransom has become a major part of Nigeria’s worsening security crisis, with armed bandits and Islamist militants targeting schools, villages and travellers on major highways.

Victims are often held for weeks or months while relatives and communities struggle to raise money demanded for their release.

Schools have remained particularly vulnerable.

In November 2025, 315 pupils and members of staff were abducted from a school in Papiri, Niger State, according to SBM.

“School abductions have resurged, with the Papiri attack reviving a tactic whose costs ripple through education, farming and public trust,” the report said.

The findings came as President Bola Tinubu ordered security forces to intensify efforts to rescue as many as 600 civilians reportedly kidnapped in Niger State last week.

The victims reportedly included women, children and elderly residents.

Reuters said the Presidency and military had not immediately responded to requests for comment on the SBM findings.

Nigeria has battled mass kidnappings for more than a decade, with the 2014 abduction of schoolgirls from Chibok, Borno State, drawing global attention to the crisis.

SBM warned that ransom payments were increasingly turning kidnapping into more than a criminal enterprise, potentially providing funding to armed groups capable of threatening national stability.

“Without a coordinated strategy that targets both the profitability of the crime and its roots, Nigeria risks entrenching kidnapping not merely as a criminal industry but as a funding mechanism for the very groups that most threaten its stability,” SBM said.