The Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Adewale Adeniyi, has announced that the Service is transitioning to an annual recruitment cycle, marking a major policy shift aimed at ensuring more predictable and efficient manpower planning.
Speaking during a press briefing on the release of the final list of successful candidates for the 2024/2025 recruitment exercise, Adeniyi said recruitment into the Service would no longer be conducted at irregular intervals but would become a standing yearly exercise.
“The Nigeria Customs Service is moving to an annual recruitment cycle. Recruitment will no longer be an occasional event undertaken every several years. It will be a standing, predictable, yearly process,” he said.
According to the Comptroller-General, the 2026 recruitment exercise will commence later this year and is expected to be completed within a single calendar year, from advertisement to the publication of the final list of successful candidates.
He explained that the systems, screening architecture and verification processes developed during the just-concluded recruitment exercise have now been fully established, making future exercises faster and more efficient.
“The delays of this cycle were in significant part the cost of constructing that machinery. That cost has now been paid,” Adeniyi stated.
He noted that the annual recruitment framework would enable the Service to align recruitment with anticipated retirements while providing aspiring applicants with a clear timeline for future opportunities.
“It means that a young Nigerian who is unsuccessful this year knows precisely when the next opportunity arrives, rather than waiting in uncertainty for an announcement that may be years in coming,” he added.
The announcement came as the Nigeria Customs Service officially released the final list of 3,852 successful candidates for the 2024/2025 recruitment exercise, bringing to a close a nationwide process that began in December 2024.
Adeniyi disclosed that the successful candidates comprise 1,275 in the Superintendent Cadre, 367 in the Inspectorate Cadre and 2,210 in the Customs Assistant Cadre.
He apologised to applicants for the extended duration of the recruitment process, explaining that the Service received an unprecedented 573,680 applications for the 3,852 available positions, all of which underwent multiple stages of screening, including computer-based examinations and verification of credentials against the national identity database.
He also attributed the delay to the high rate of retirements among senior management officers, which placed additional pressure on the administrative machinery responsible for coordinating the exercise.
Despite the delay, the Comptroller-General insisted that the integrity of the recruitment process was never compromised, stressing that the final list was produced strictly on merit after rigorous scrutiny.
He further disclosed that every state of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory was represented in the recruitment, with the Federal Character principle fully applied throughout the exercise.
Adeniyi urged successful candidates to await official communication from the Service regarding physical and medical screening while warning members of the public to disregard fraudsters demanding payment for employment.
He reiterated that recruitment into the Nigeria Customs Service remains free and advised anyone approached for money in exchange for employment to report such individuals to the Service and relevant security agencies.
