Nigerians have paid N2.57 billion as ransom between July 2024 and June 2025, SBM Intelligence has said.
The report, titled “The Year Ahead at an Inflexion Point”, which was released on December 19, 2025, showed key economic and political developments shaping Africa in 2025 and found that bandits demanded an estimated N48 billion as ransom during the 12-month period, but not all the amount was paid.
According to the SBM Intelligence, the figures indicated that kidnappings in Nigeria have become a structured, profit-driven attraction amid vast unpoliced rural spaces and worsening security conditions in the country.
The report further revealed that at least 4,722 people were kidnapped in 997 attacks during the period under review, adding that the no fewer than 762 people were killed in attacks linked to banditry and related violence.
It said ransom demands increased sharply in naira terms, adding that the real value realised by abductors in dollar value remained relatively modest due to the depreciation of the naira.
The N2.57 billion paid in ransom during the period amounted to about $1.66 million, slightly over the estimated $1.13 million equivalent of N653.7 million collected in 2022.
The report said the Northwest remained dominant in Nigeria’s kidnap-for-ransom landscape, as it recorded 425 incidents, or 42.6 per cent of total cases nationwide. The region also lost 2,938 victims, representing 62.2 per cent of all abducted persons.
It said Zamfara State has the highest number of victims at 1,203, followed by Kaduna and Katsina States, just as it added that the concentration of kidnappings to the region was as a result of poorly governed rural areas and the presence of entrenched bandit networks capable of carrying out large-scale operations with little resistance.
The Southwest recorded the lowest in abductors of people, recording just 5.3 per cent of incidents and 3 per cent of victims during the period.
The SBM Intelligence said mass abductions accounted for about 23 per cent of all recorded cases and were overwhelmingly concentrated in northern states.
According to the report, complete villages were often attacked, with victims sometimes forced to work on bandit-controlled farms and mining sites.
It said such large-scale operations, allow criminal groups to increase leverage during ransom negotiations while causing fear in communities.
Apart from kidnapping, the report said there was persistent and escalating violence in different parts of the country in 2025. In the Northcentral, attacks linked to armed herders continued through March, with Benue State particularly affected. A single attack in Katsina-Ala Local Government Area on March 7 left 15 people dead.
