Cheta Nwanze, the chief executive officer of SBM Intelligence, says kidnapping has evolved into one of Nigeria’s largest informal industries, warning that it may now be the second-highest employer of labour in the country’s informal economy.
Speaking in an interview on Arise Television on Saturday, Nwanze said the scale and sophistication of kidnapping operations across the country suggest the involvement of extensive networks of participants beyond the armed criminals carrying out the abductions.
The SBM Intelligence chief said the profitability of kidnapping has created a vast criminal value chain involving numerous actors.
“Given those numbers, we could easily say that the kidnapping industry is probably the second highest employer of labour in the informal economy in Nigeria now,” he said.
He explained that modern kidnapping operations rely on networks of informants, lookouts, ransom negotiators, couriers and logistics providers.
“There is nothing that can happen without the value-chain participation of a lot of people,” he said.
“They have informants, they have lookouts, they have people who pick the money, and they have a logistics chain behind them.”
Nwanze attributed the growth of the kidnapping industry to a culture of impunity and the continued payment of ransoms.
“The underlying word for all of it is impunity,” he said.
He added that SBM Intelligence had repeatedly warned about the growing threat of kidnapping since 2017 and published its first report on the economics of kidnapping in 2020.
“We are in a situation where these criminals are getting paid and are able to sustain their value chain and supply chain,” he said.
“So it’s profitable for them. And because it’s profitable for them, it simply continues. It metastasises and grows worse.”
Nwanze warned that unless the economic incentives driving the crime are disrupted, kidnapping will continue to expand and pose an even greater threat to national security.
