Nigeria’s security crisis is accelerating and the rising insecurity has a real cost which in the end affects Nigeria’s economy, says Lagos-based SBM intelligence.
Nigeria is grappling with insecurity in at least five out of the six geo-political zones in the country.
The group in a video shared online said oil bunkering, piracy, kidnapping and insurgency had significantly impacted on the economy.
Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty SE, a unit of Munich-based Allianz SE, was reported to have described the West African coast as having the worst report of piracy and kidnappings at sea in 2019.
The Gulf of Guinea recorded the third highest number of ship losses, the group noted.
“About 45 per cent of global piracy occurred in the Gulf of Guinea in the first quarter of this year, according to Allianz. There were 47 reported incidents, up from 38 a year ago, mostly targeting container ships and bulk carriers,” the group stated.
The economic cost of piracy in West Africa through 2017 was about 818.1 million dollars with a significant amount spent on contracting maritime security, according to Oceans Beyond Piracy’s 2017 State of Maritime Piracy report.
In 2019, Nigeria lost one trillion naira to oil theft encouraged by insecurity in the oil rich Niger Delta region.
SBM reported in May that at least 18.34 million dollars was paid to kidnappers as ransom between June, 2011 and March, 2020.
In the past few years, kidnapping has moved from a crime mostly confined in the Niger Delta to a national security threat.
The decade’s long insurgency in the Northeast has cripple businesses, displaced over two million people and killed more than 30,000 people.
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