Nigeria, Aug. 28 -- Nigerians paid at least N2.57 billion to kidnappers between July 2024 and June 2025, while abductors demanded N48 billion in the same period, according to a new SBM Intelligence study on the country's kidnap-for-ransom economy.

The report records 4,722 victims across 997 incidents, with at least 762 deaths linked to abduction-related violence.

Describing kidnapping as a "lucrative criminal enterprise," SBM noted that payments made amounted to roughly 5.35 per cent of total ransom demanded.

The figures are drawn from SBM's open-source tracking of incidents and media-verified cases nationwide. Previous editions of the project found lower totals, underscoring a worsening kidnap economy.

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