Nigeria Records Over 25 Million Phone Theft Cases in One Year

Between May 2023 and April 2024, Nigeria experienced a staggering 25.35 million cases of phone theft, making it the most prevalent crime in the country during this period. This data comes from the Crime Experience and Security Perception Survey, as released by the National Bureau of Statistics.

The survey analyzed crimes reported across the nation, revealing that phone theft was the most common crime, followed by consumer fraud, with 12.1 million cases, and assault, which accounted for 8.45 million incidents. On the other end of the spectrum, car hijacking was the least reported crime, with just over 333,000 cases recorded.

Most incidents of phone theft occurred either at home or in public places, with approximately 90% of victims reporting the crime to the police. However, only 11.7% of the stolen phones were successfully recovered, even though half of the victims expressed satisfaction with police response efforts.

The report highlighted that about 17.97 million Nigerians experienced phone theft within the year, with 16.9 million victims being male. Notably, 4% of affected individuals experienced repeat incidents of theft.

The age group most impacted was individuals aged 45-54, accounting for 7.1% of cases, while younger individuals aged 15-24 were the least affected, with 3.4% of cases.

Regionally, the North-West recorded the highest number of crimes, with 14.4 million incidents, followed by the North-Central with 8.8 million. The South-East reported the lowest figures, with 6.18 million incidents during the reference period.