Women committing crimes in Nigeria are on the rise, and they are more involved in advanced-fee-fraud. According to a National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) report titled Men and Women in Nigeria 2020, between 2017 and 2019, a total of 2,505 crimes were committed by women. Of this figure, 804 was advanced-fee-fraud.
Advance-fee-fraud is when fraudsters target victims to make advance or upfront payments for goods, services and/or financial gains that do not materialise.
According to the report, the number of women involved in this crime is more than those involved in other crimes.
In 2017, 118 women were involved in advanced fee fraud. By 2018, the number increased to 349, then dropped to 337 in 2019, bringing the total to 804.
This shows that out of the total 2,505 reported crimes committed by women in the period under review, 32.1% was advanced fee fraud.
Annual increase
Data show that the rate increased every year, except for 2019. Even with the decline in 2019, the figure was still higher than that of 2017.
The number of women involved in financial and other related crimes also increased within the period under review. The figure increased from 671 in 2017 to 856 in 2018. In 2019, it got to 978.
Data report on Men and Women in Nigeria 2020 shows that despite the nominal increase in the number of women involved in financial crime, the proportion fluctuates. In 2017, 671 out of 5024 criminals were women. This shows that 13.36% of the criminals were women.
Categories of financial crimes committed by women in Nigeria
The data categorised the crimes into eight types of which advanced fee fraud tops others in women participation.
Women involved in economic crime has also increased over the years from 52 in 2017 to 72 in 2018 and 79 in 2018. This sum up to the total of 203 for the three years, which shows that 8.10% of women are involved in crime within these three years.
In financial crime, the number of women moved from 200 in 2017 to 199 in 2018 and then increased to 235 in 2019. Giving the total of 634 women arrested for the three years and 25.31% of women involved in the crime within these years. This is the second most committed crime by women.
The proportion of women involved in crime increased in 2018. Out of 5665 criminals arrested, 856 of them were women. This shows that 15.1% of the criminals in 2018 were women. In 2019, despite the nominal increase in the number of women, their proportion to the total number of criminals declined. Out of 7332 criminals arrested, only 978 of them were women representing 13.3% of the total criminals.
The record on money laundering by women shows the reduction from 64 persons arrested in 2017 to 12 women arrested in 2018 to 17 women arrested in 2019. This data shows that money laundering has one of the lowest crime rates amidst other crimes recorded with a total of 93 and 3.71% within those three years.
Women engagement in bank fraud crime has increased greatly with the record of 179 in 2017 to 160 in 2018 and 205 in 2019 which sum up to 544 and a total of 21.72% within the three years. This report has shown that band fraud is the third most engaged crime by women and 21.72%.
The rate at which women are involved in embezzlement is low with the record of 36 in 2017 to 16 in 2018 to 25 in 2019 giving the sum total of 77 and 3.07% within the three years.
The proportion of women involved in bribery and corruption crime is the lowest in the report, the data shows that in 2017 only 1 person was arrested and in 0 was arrested in 2018 and 7 in 2019. Which sum up to 8 women were arrested and 0.32% within the years. Though bribery and corruption has the lowest record of crime rate, it also shows that there has been an increase.
Cybercrime by women has also increased according to the data from 21 in 2017 to 48 in 2018 to 73 in 2019, this increase sums up to 142 and 5.67% within the three years. This shows that women are getting more involved in cybercrime.
Timothy Avele, Chief Executive Officer of Agent-X Security Ltd . said, women committing crime generally is increasing not only in Nigeria but also in many countries of the world. This calls for serious concern among all stakeholders especially law-enforcement agencies and government.
Reasons why there is an increase in women rate could be economic, lack of good jobs. It could also be as a result of the ease of committing these crimes especially cyber frauds. However, the main cause is the bad influence of close male associates such as boyfriends, husbands indulging in these crimes, he said.