Boko Haram has lured young entrepreneurs and business owners in the North-East geopolitical zone to join the Islamist militant group by providing or promising capital and loans to boost their businesses, aid agency Mercy Corps said on Monday.
Seeing successful business ownership as a way to escape poverty, many Nigerian youths – ranging from butchers and beauticians to tailors and traders – accepted loans for their businesses in return for joining Boko Haram, Mercy Corps said.
Yet the lure of business support is often a trap, as those who cannot repay their loans are forced to join the militants or be killed, said the report from the U.S.-based aid agency.
“Boko Haram is tapping into the yearnings of Nigerian youth to get ahead in an environment of massive inequality,” said report author and Mercy Corps peace-building adviser, Lisa Inks.
“It is incredibly clever – either such loans breed loyalty or Boko Haram use mafia– style tactics to trap and force young people to join them,” Inks told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Six in 10 Nigerians live in absolute poverty, on less than one dollar a day, a figure which rises to three quarters of the population in the northeast of the country, according to the latest statistics from the National Bureau of Statistics.
Many young people told Mercy Corps they would struggle without the support of powerful “godfathers” to provide capital for their businesses, or cash transfers for equipment and goods.
Boko Haram has therefore been able to fill a critical gap in financial services, said Mercy Corps, which conducted interviews with 145 people including young former Boko Haram members, family of former members, and youths who resisted joining.
The report called for increased access to financial and business services, more support for conflict-hit communities and greater efforts to reintegrate people who have fled Boko Haram.
Women and girls freed from Boko Haram are subjected to discrimination, rejection and persecution from their families and communities when they return home, said a recent report by International Alert and the U.N. children’s agency, UNICEF.