— SBM Intelligence reveals terrorist group now dominates kidnap economy
A new security report has painted a grim picture of Nigeria’s kidnapping crisis, revealing that a single faction of Boko Haram has come to dominate the ransom economy, pocketing nine out of every ten naira paid to abductors over the past year.
According to SBM Intelligence’s latest findings, the Jama’atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda’awati Wal-Jihad (JAS) faction and its allied cells raked in a staggering ₦7.0015 billion between July 2025 and June 2026. This figure represents roughly 90 per cent of the total ₦7.779 billion ($5.78 million) paid in ransom across Nigeria during that period.
What makes this even more striking is the efficiency behind the numbers. The terrorist group achieved this haul from just eight recorded incidents, while bandits and other unaffiliated kidnappers, responsible for 146 separate cases, could only manage ₦719.4 million between them — a meagre 9.2 per cent of the national total.
The report traces nearly the entire national ransom bill to two devastating mass abductions that occurred months apart.
The first, in November 2025, saw 315 pupils and staff ripped from St Mary’s School in Papiri, Niger State. Security sources quoted in the report confirmed that ₦2 billion was eventually paid to secure their release.
Then came April 2026. A faction led by one Ali Ngulde stormed Ngoshe in Gwoza, Borno State, and marched off with 416 people. The abductors issued a 72-hour ultimatum demanding ₦5 billion — and got every kobo of it. SBM Intelligence describes this as the largest single ransom payment it has ever documented.
“Together, these two incidents account for N7 billion and explain almost the entire national ransom bill,” the report states.
The report warns that what Nigeria is witnessing is no longer a kidnapping crisis in the traditional sense. Instead, a designated terrorist organisation has effectively taken over the kidnap economy.
“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 authors write.
The contrast in outcomes is telling. Bandits and criminal gangs demanded ₦13.492 billion across 146 cases but managed to collect only a fraction — about 5.3 per cent. JAS, on the other hand, demanded ₦9.205 billion and walked away with 76.1 per cent of what they asked for.
“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,” the report argues. “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.”
The report also documents a sharp escalation in kidnapping nationwide. Some 7,825 people were abducted during the review period, a 66 per cent increase from the previous year. At least 1,142 people lost their lives, nearly 900 of them civilians.
Zamfara State bore the heaviest burden, recording 236 kidnapping incidents and 1,921 victims. Overall, northern Nigeria accounted for a staggering 93.7 per cent of all abductions.
SBM Intelligence also flagged a troubling milestone: 2026 marked the first year that the highest amount demanded in a single incident and the highest amount actually paid were identical — the ₦5 billion Ngoshe ransom.
“In every prior year, a wide gulf separated the boldest demand from the largest settlement. 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 states, pointing to a group “holding hundreds of hostages, and willing to kill.”
The report argues that Nigeria’s response to the crisis must evolve. With a terrorist organisation now the primary beneficiary of the ransom trade, treating the problem as a routine policing matter is no longer enough.
“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 concludes.
“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.”
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