United States government don indict Nigeria say di kontri fail to meet minimum standards for elimination of trafficking, citing corruption, official complicity, and government failure to prosecute complicit officials. Di report also list Nigeria among 14 countries wey dey recruit and use child soldiers. Dis one dey inside di 2026 Trafficking in Persons, TIP, Report, wey cover April 1, 2025 to March 31, 2026.
Di report retain Nigeria on Tier 2, a category wey dem define as countries whose governments no fully meet di Trafficking Victims Protection Act minimum standards but dey make significant efforts to meet di requirements. E also place Nigeria on di Child Soldiers Prevention Act, CSPA, list alongside Afghanistan, Burma, Central African Republic, DRC, Ethiopia, Iran, Russia, Rwanda, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Venezuela and Yemen.
U.S Department of State note for di report say CSPA restrictions go apply to Nigeria on international military education and training, foreign military financing, excess defense articles, peacekeeping operations and licences for direct commercial sales of military equipment, absent presidential waiver from October 1, 2026, following di CSPA listing. Di State Department, however, note say di government demonstrate increasing efforts, including investigations, prosecutions, and convictions, compared with di previous reporting period and retain di kontri on Tier 2.
Di US, wey note say corruption and official complicity in trafficking crimes remain significant concerns, talk say di government no report any investigations, prosecutions, or convictions of government employees allegedly complicit in trafficking crimes or provide details or other actions taken against complicit officials from previous years.
E note say in many cases, di government coerce victims of forced marriage, including trafficking victims, to return to their Boko Haram husbands for Borno State demobilisation centers. E note di government failure to protect victims, saying in 2025, 675 trafficking victims receive assistance, compared to 2,058 victims di previous year, services, especially for male victims, remain limited. According to di report, only one dedicated NGO shelter for adult male victims dey during di year.
NAPTIP shelters no permit shelter residents freedom of movement. Di government require victims to cooperate in law enforcement proceedings to access certain protection services. Di government no provide services to adult victims wey decline shelter services, increasing their vulnerability. Di government no get formal policy to prevent di removal of victims to countries where dem go face hardship or retribution. Unlike di previous year, di government no report transferring any children associated with non-state armed groups.
On weak labour protection, di report allege say di government no prohibit worker-paid recruitment fees, no report holding labour recruiters liable civilly and criminally for fraudulent recruitment and no provide specialized training on child labour and human trafficking to labour inspectors. Di government no provide anti-trafficking training to its diplomatic personnel.
On child soldiers, e state say Boko Haram and ISIS-West Africa continue recruiting, abducting, and using, including through force, fraud, and coercion, child soldiers as young as 12 years old as cooks, domestic workers, spies, porters, messengers, bodyguards or guards at checkpoints, morality police, armed combatants, and suicide bombers. Di report define child soldier to include any person under 18 who take direct part in hostilities, any person under 15 voluntarily recruited, or any person under 18 recruited by armed forces distinct from di state, including as cook, porter, messenger, medic, guard or sex slave.
On foreign exploitation and new trends, di report talk say highly organised foreign criminal syndicates fraudulently recruit foreign victims for work in Nigeria, confine dem in leased properties, and force dem to conduct organised online scams. Sources report say Nigeria Ministry of Education help promote Russia Alabuga Start program despite red flags. Russian authorities fraudulently recruit and use Nigerians to fight in di Russia-Ukraine war. North Korean nationals working in Nigeria may dey operating under exploitative working conditions and display multiple indicators of forced labour. Chinese nationals working in Nigeria may have been forced to work by di Chinese government.
On baby factories, forced labour, sex trafficking, e state say illicit actors operate baby factories, wey often dey disguised as orphanages, maternity homes, or religious center where traffickers hold women against their will, rape dem, and force dem to carry and deliver a child. Dem then sell di children. Di government and NGOs describe di factories as a widespread criminal industry most prevalent for southern part of di kontri. Traffickers exploit children in sex trafficking and forced labour, including in granite quarries and artisanal mines, domestic work, begging, street vending, textile manufacturing, and agriculture. Traffickers exploit adults and children in forced labor on cocoa farms. Some corrupt Quranic school teachers exploit children, mostly boys from rural areas, in forced labour in begging and seasonal agricultural work. In some states, families sell women and girls into forced marriages to older men to repay family debt in di traditional practice of money marriages.
Despite di barrage of indictments, di report acknowledge several strides wey di government make in arresting trafficking. E note say di government investigate 1,341 trafficking cases involving 1,367 suspects, prosecute 94 suspects, convict 97 traffickers in 2025, an increase from 744 investigations, 71 prosecutions and 49 convictions in 2024. Di report talk say di government also sentence majority of convicted traffickers to at least one year imprisonment and increase funding for victim services. In 2025, e talk say di government allocate N233 million ($161,000) for victim services, up from N128 million, while N245 million ($169,000) allocate for prevention, up from N58.8 million in 2024.
Di government, e talk, establish cybercrime unit within di police to combat online scam operations and cooperate with other governments and INTERPOL on investigations in West Africa and Southeast Asia. E further identify 2,004 victims, maintain SOPs and National Referral Mechanism, coordinate repatriation of 428 Nigerian victims exploited abroad. Di report add say di government issue restitution for 14 victims as part of criminal sentences and continue to implement di 2022-2026 National Action Plan, operate anti-trafficking hotline, conduct public awareness, and get anti-trafficking task forces in 23 states.
