DOZENS of businessmen and petty artisans across northeastern Nigeria were recruited to join Boko Haram after the terrorist sect offered them loans to expand their businesses according to a recent report by aid agency Mercy Corps.

In a shocking revelation, Mercy Corps revealed that young entrepreneurs and business owners in northeastern Nigeria joined Boko Haram after they were provided with or promised capital and loans to boost their businesses. 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.

 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 US-based aid agency. 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.

 Lisa Inks, Mercy Corps peacebuilding adviser, said: “Boko Haram is tapping into the yearning of Nigerian youth to get ahead in an environment of massive inequality. 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.”

 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 Nigeria’s National Bureau of Statistics. Northeast Nigeria is the most deprived part of the country, with Borno State in particular, having the highest number of out-of-school in the nation.