The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has revealed that between May 2023 and April 2024, Nigerians paid a total of ₦2.2 trillion as ransom due to the country’s escalating insecurity.
This information comes from the latest NBS Crime Experience and Security Perception Survey.
The report highlights that households affected by kidnapping incidents bore the brunt of these payments, underscoring the growing menace of criminal activities.
An estimated 51.89 million crime incidents were recorded across Nigerian households during this period.
Regionally, the North-West topped the list with the highest number of incidents at 14.4 million, followed by the North-Central region with 8.8 million incidents. Conversely, the South-East region reported the lowest crime rates with 6.18 million incidents.
The survey findings also indicated that rural areas experienced more crime than urban areas, with 26.53 million incidents in rural households compared to 25.36 million in urban areas.
The report also detailed the impact of kidnappings, revealing that 4.14 million households faced home robbery. The average ransom paid was ₦2,670,693, leading to a total estimated ransom of ₦2,231,772,563,507 during the reference period.
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