Business of Fear in Nigeria

They call it chaos. We call it business. Because in Nigeria, kidnapping is no longer just a crime—it’s

one of the country’s fastest-growing industries. Between May 2023 and April 2024,

the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) estimates around 2,235,954 people were kidnapped across

the country. That’s millions of lives stolen, while the system watched.

Families paid on average ₦2.7 million per incident, totaling over ₦2.2 trillion in ransom

payments in a year. In the Northwest states—like Zamfara State, Kaduna State and

Katsina State—this business is booming. Between July 2024 and June 2025, SMB Intelligence

found 1,203 victims in Zamfara alone, among thousands more across the region.