7,825 Kidnapped Nigerians Paid N7.8bn Ransom In 2026 -Report

At least 7,825 kidnapping victims in Nigeria paid N7.78 billion to non-state actors and terrorists in 2026, according to a report by SBM Intelligence.

The revelation comes after several denials by government and security agencies that ransoms were paid to secure the release of victims of mass abductions across the country.

The report, titled: “The Capture of Nigeria’s Kidnap Economy,” said one group, the Jama’atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda’awati Wal-Jihad (JAS) faction of Boko Haram, collected 90 per cent of all ransom paid from just eight incidents monitored.

It found that of the N7.779 billion ($5.78 million) paid in ransom nationwide during the period, the JAS faction of Boko Haram and its allied cells took N7.0015 billion from eight recorded incidents.

“Attributing each ransom to the actor named in its reporting, the JAS faction and its allied cells account for N7.0 billion of the N7.779 billion paid around the country, a staggering 90 per cent of all ransom collected in Nigeria this year, from just a handful of incidents,” the report stated.

According to the report, ransom demanded fell from N48 billion to N22.9 billion, yet the amount actually paid more than tripled, from N2.56 billion to N7.78 billion.

The collection rate also jumped from 5.35 per cent to 34 per cent.

Two abductions drove the year’s total: the N5 billion ransom for 416 captives taken from Ngoshe, Borno State, and the N2 billion paid for 315 pupils and staff abducted from St Mary’s School in Papiri, Niger State.

Between them, the two incidents accounted for N7 billion, almost the entire national ransom bill.

SBM Intelligence traced almost the entire national ransom bill to the two mass abductions carried out months apart in Borno and Niger States.

In April 2026, a faction reportedly commanded by Ali Ngulde abducted 416 people from Ngoshe in Gwoza, Borno State, issuing a 72-hour ultimatum for N5 billion. The report said the full amount was paid, making it the largest single ransom SBM has ever recorded.

Months earlier, in November 2025, gunmen abducted 315 pupils and staff from St Mary’s School in Papiri, Niger State, in what the report described as “one of the worst mass abductions in the country’s history.”

Multiple intelligence sources cited in the report put the ransom paid at N2 billion.

“Together, these two incidents account for N7 billion and explain almost the entire national ransom bill,” the report said.

The report described the shift as a structural change in how Nigeria’s kidnap industry now functions, warning that a “designated terrorist organisation is no longer merely participating in the kidnap economy; in ransom terms, it is the kidnap economy.”

It drew a sharp contrast between the economics of ideologically driven mass abduction and everyday criminal kidnapping.

Bandits and unaffiliated kidnappers, the report found, demanded N13.492 billion across 146 cases but collected only 5.3 per cent of it.

JAS, meanwhile, demanded N9.205 billion and collected 76.1 per cent of what it asked for.

“Measured by what was demanded, the kidnap economy is a crime of the many. Measured by what was actually paid, it is dominated by a single terrorist organisation,” the report said.

“For a designated terrorist organisation to collect N7 billion in a single year is hardly the criminal-justice failure that it may appear to be, because, on the contrary, it is a material transfer of resources to an insurgency, one that buys weapons, pays fighters and sustains the very campaign that produces the next round of abductions,” it warned.

The report noted that 2026 marked the first year in the life of the annual series that the highest amount demanded in a single incident and the highest amount actually paid were identical: the N5 billion Ngoshe ransom.

“In every prior year, a wide gulf separated the boldest demand from the largest settlement; and the fact that the two now coincide is the clearest possible signal of a counterparty with the leverage to be paid exactly what it asks,” the report said, attributing that leverage to a group “holding hundreds of hostages, and willing to kill.”

The report also flagged a break from the pattern of recent years, in which ransom sums in naira climbed while their dollar value stagnated due to currency devaluation.

In 2026, the naira strengthened even as the ransom total rose, meaning the dollar value of ransom paid, approximately $5.7 million, more than tripled from the previous cycle’s $1.66 million.

SBM Intelligence argued that the concentration of ransom proceeds in the hands of a single armed group changes the calculus for how the crisis should be addressed, calling for action to disrupt the financing rather than treat kidnapping purely as a policing problem.

“Breaking this cycle demands two actions: disrupting the financial flows that now underwrite insurgency, and addressing the economic desperation that supplies its foot soldiers,” the report concluded.

“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.”

According to the report, the geography remains unchanged, with the Northwest leading in incidents, victims and deaths.

Zamfara recorded 236 kidnapping incidents and 1,921 victims, nearly a quarter of the national total. The North accounted for 93.7 per cent of all abducted persons, while the South’s share shrank to just 6.3 per cent.

Mass abduction also emerged as the dominant mode, with four in five victims taken in group seizures. Zamfara alone recorded 92 mass abductions, followed by Sokoto with 76.

School abductions have also resurged, with the Papiri attack reviving a tactic whose consequences extend beyond the victims to education, farming and public trust.

The report further warned that payment of ransom was no guarantee of survival, noting that in at least six cases, victims were killed after ransom was paid.

Ransom-bearers were increasingly being abducted themselves, while in 14 incidents, kidnappers demanded goods, motorcycles, phones, food and fuel, indicating an economy adjusting to the limited cash resources of victims and their families.

The strategic implication, SBM Intelligence said, was stark.

“The everyday kidnap economy bandits and criminal gangs demanded N13.5 billion but collected just N719 million, a 5.3 per cent collection rate. JAS, by contrast, demanded N9.2 billion and collected N7 billion, a 76 per cent rate.

“Measured by what was demanded, the kidnap economy is a crime of the many. Measured by what was actually paid, it is dominated by a single terrorist organisation.”