Comptroller General of Customs, Basir Wale Adeniyi, has announced a landmark reform of the recruitment process into the Nigeria Customs Service, declaring that enlistment will now become an annual, predictable and strictly merit based exercise, while also releasing the final list of successful candidates for the 2024/2025 recruitment exercise.
Adeniyi said the move is aimed at eliminating years of uncertainty, ending perceptions of favoritism and ensuring a steady pipeline of qualified personnel. Speaking at a media briefing in Abuja, he said the service has institutionalized a transparent recruitment framework that will guarantee yearly opportunities for qualified Nigerians. The reform comes as the service concluded one of the most competitive recruitment exercises in its history, selecting 3,852 successful candidates from a staggering 573,680 applications received nationwide.
“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,” Adeniyi said. “The 2026 Recruitment Exercise will open later this year, and it is my firm intention that it will be completed within a single calendar year, from advertisement to final list.” He explained that the digital systems, screening architecture and verification processes developed during the recently concluded exercise have now become permanent institutional assets that will make future recruitment faster, more efficient and more transparent, noting that much of the delay experienced this time around stemmed from building that infrastructure from scratch. “The systems, the screening architecture and the verification processes built during this exercise now exist, and they will not have to be built again. The delays of this cycle were in significant part the cost of constructing that machinery. That cost has now been paid,” he said.
He maintained that the new annual recruitment framework would allow the service to replace retiring officers systematically while giving unsuccessful applicants certainty about when the next opportunity will arise, stressing that the process remained entirely merit driven despite the enormous interest it generated nationwide. “An exercise of this scale, in a country of this size, attracts interest from many quarters. What I can tell you is that the list I place before you today is one I am prepared to defend on its merits, and the standards the Service set for itself at the beginning of this process are the standards that produced it,” he said.
Of the 573,680 applications submitted, only 3,852 candidates ultimately secured employment, an overall success rate of 0.67 per cent, or nearly one successful applicant out of every 148 candidates. Of those selected, 1,275 were recruited into the Superintendent Cadre, 367 into the Inspectorate Cadre, and 2,210 into the Customs Assistant Cadre. The Inspectorate Cadre proved the most competitive category, drawing 128,604 applications for only 367 vacancies, roughly one successful candidate for every 350 applicants, while the Superintendent Cadre recorded 276,995 applications for 1,275 positions, and 168,081 applicants competed for 2,210 Customs Assistant vacancies.
Addressing the more than 560,000 unsuccessful applicants, Adeniyi urged them not to lose hope, saying many met the required standards but were edged out by the intensity of the competition. “You were not rejected; you were unlucky in a field of extraordinary competition. Many of you met every requirement the Service set. There were simply not enough places. I encourage you to remain engaged with the Service, to keep your credentials current, and to apply again. The next opportunity is not years away,” he said. He also apologized for the prolonged recruitment process, acknowledging the anxiety and frustration experienced by applicants and their families, and explained that the delay resulted from the unprecedented volume of applications, extensive verification procedures and significant retirements among senior officers, all of which placed enormous pressure on the administrative machinery overseeing the exercise. Every application, he said, passed through several stages of scrutiny, including application screening, computer based examinations and verification against the national identity database, before the final list was approved, with successful candidates still required to undergo physical and medical examinations before receiving final approval from the Nigeria Customs Service Board.
On geographical spread, Adeniyi said the recruitment strictly complied with the Federal Character principle, with all 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory represented in the final list. Every state received an equal allocation of 105 positions, comprising 35 in the Superintendent Cadre, 10 in the Inspectorate Cadre and 60 in the Customs Assistant Cadre, while the Federal Capital Territory received 72 positions in line with the approved formula. “Not one place was allocated at the discretion of any officer of this Service. The Federal Character principle has been applied in full,” he said.
The recruitment also recorded modest progress in female representation, with women securing 839 positions, or 21.8 per cent of the total intake, slightly exceeding their 21.2 per cent share of applications. Adeniyi said female applicants recorded marginally better success rates than male applicants in two of the three recruitment cadres, adding that the service intends to attract more qualified women into operational and enforcement roles in future exercises. He further disclosed that the median age of successful candidates was 26, with nearly three quarters below the age of 30, describing the youthful intake as aligned with the service’s long term transformation agenda as customs administration increasingly relies on technology, data analytics and automated risk management systems.
The customs boss assured Nigerians that despite the retirement of many senior officers in recent years, the service has maintained operational stability and continued to record strong performance in revenue generation and anti smuggling operations, attributing the resilience to the support of President Bola Tinubu, the Nigeria Customs Service Board, and the professionalism of the service’s officers. He reiterated that recruitment into the service remains entirely free and warned applicants against fraudsters. “Successful candidates should watch only the official channels of the service. Recruitment into the Nigeria Customs Service is free. No candidate has paid, and no candidate should pay, any person or group for a place on this list. Anyone who solicits payment on our behalf is a criminal and should be reported immediately to the Service and the security agencies,” he said, congratulating the successful candidates while reminding them that they had earned their positions through one of the country’s most rigorous recruitment exercises and would be expected to uphold the service’s high standards from the start of their careers.
