Nigerians paid ₦2.23 trillion in ransom to kidnappers in the year to April 2024
Estimated kidnapping incidents and ransom paid by households, May 2023 to April 2024, from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) Crime Experience and Security Perception Survey (CESPS) 2024.
Households in Nigeria experienced an estimated 2,235,954 kidnapping incidents between May 2023 and April 2024, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) Crime Experience and Security Perception Survey (CESPS) 2024, released on 17 December 2024. The North-West accounted for 1,420,307 of them, the North-Central for 317,837 and the South-East, the lowest of the six geopolitical zones, for 110,432; figures for the other three zones could not be confirmed. Rural areas recorded 1,668,104 incidents and urban areas 567,850.
Source: National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), Crime Experience and Security Perception Survey (CESPS) 2024, as reported at release by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Daily Trust and Pulse Nigeria. Incidents are survey estimates for the reference period of May 2023 to April 2024. Rural and urban incidents add up to the national estimate of 2,235,954. NBS removed the report from its website in January 2025.
Source documents: NBS National Data Archive, CESPS 2024 study description; NAN, Kidnapping incidence estimated at 2.2m cases: NBS; Daily Trust, 614,937 Nigerians killed, 2.2m abducted in 1yr: NBS; Pulse Nigeria, Nigeria records ₦2.2 trillion kidnap ransom amid rising crime rates: NBS.
Among households that experienced kidnapping, 65.0 percent paid a ransom. NBS estimated the total ransom paid at ₦2,231,772,563,507, or ₦2.23 trillion. Households in the North-West paid about ₦1.2 trillion, the highest of the zones, and households in the South-East ₦85.4 billion, the lowest. Zone figures for the other four zones could not be confirmed against two independent reports and are not given here.
NBS put the average ransom at ₦2,670,693. It was higher in urban areas, at ₦3.7 million, than in rural areas, at ₦2.3 million.
Source: National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), Crime Experience and Security Perception Survey (CESPS) 2024, as reported at release by Daily Trust, Nairametrics and PRNigeria. The national average is NBS's published figure of ₦2,670,693; the urban and rural averages were published rounded to one decimal place. The number of ransom payments over which NBS averaged is not given in the reports that could be opened, and the average cannot be reproduced by dividing the total ransom by the total number of incidents.
Source documents: Daily Trust, NBS: 26.53m households reported crime, N2.23trn ransom paid in 1 year; Daily Trust, 614,937 Nigerians killed, 2.2m abducted in 1yr: NBS; Nairametrics, Nigerians paid N2.23 trillion to kidnappers in 12 months: NBS report; PRNigeria, Northwest leads as 2.2m abducted, N2.23tr paid as ransom in 12 months.
The CESPS 2024 was a baseline survey, the first of its kind by NBS, covering a twelve-month recall period from May 2023 to April 2024. NBS removed the report from its website in January 2025.
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