How kidnapping became a booming business in Nigeria

In Nigeria, kidnapping for ransom has evolved into a thriving criminal industry amid poverty, corruption, and weak state institutions. Once targeting foreign oil workers in the Niger Delta, kidnappers now prey on wealthy and middle-class Nigerians, as well as ordinary citizens across the country.

Source Financial Times

Former oil executive Folarin Banigbe shared his experience of being abducted for over 36 hours and released after his family paid “several million naira” in ransom. Reports by SBM Intelligence estimate that kidnappers demanded nearly $1.7 million in ransom in the past year alone — a figure likely far below the real total.

Nigeria’s elite, fearing abduction, increasingly rely on hired police officers and private guards for protection. With underpaid police turning to side contracts with the rich, security has become a luxury — and kidnapping, a profitable business born of inequality.