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The Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) has announced the release of the final list of successful candidates for its 2024/2025 recruitment exercise, saying only 3,852 candidates were selected out of 573,680 applications received.

According to the Comptroller General of the Service, Adewale Adeniyi, during a briefing on Tuesday, the list covers the Superintendent, Inspectorate and Customs Assistant cadres, with all 36 states and the FCT represented.

He apologised for the delay and announced that Customs will now conduct recruitment annually, stating that the next exercise will begin later this year.

According to Adeniyi, the process was thorough, fair and free, urging applicants to report anyone demanding payment.

“I am pleased to announce the release of the final list of successful candidates in the 2024/2025 Recruitment Exercise of the Nigeria Customs Service. A total of 3,852 candidates have been offered places across the three cadres of entry: 1,275 in the Superintendent Cadre, 367 in the Inspectorate Cadre and 2,210 in the Customs Assistant Cadre. This is the final list, and it concludes the exercise that opened in December 2024.

“I owe you an explanation rather than an excuse. Several factors extended the timeline. The volume alone was extraordinary: the Service received 573,680 applications for 3,852 places. Every one of those applications had to be received, verified and assessed. The Service also carried, over this same period, an unusually high rate of retirement and turnover among its senior and management cadre, which placed real strain on the administrative machinery that runs an exercise of this size.

“Above all, however, the time was taken because the Service was determined that the right candidates should emerge. Every candidate on this list has passed through several distinct layers of scrutiny: application screening, computer-based examination, and verification of credentials against the national identity database. Where a record did not reconcile, we went back and checked it again. Successful candidates will now proceed to physical and medical assessment, and to a final review at Board level. That is the honest reason this list is issued in August rather than in March.

“I will say one further thing, and I will say it plainly. An exercise of this scale, in a country of this size, attracts interest from many quarters. That is neither unexpected nor improper in itself. 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.

“The competition was severe. From 573,680 applications, 3,852 candidates were selected. That is an overall success rate of 0.67 per cent, or roughly one place for every 148 applicants.

“The intensity differed by cadre. The Superintendent Cadre drew 276,995 applications for 1,275 places, a ratio of one in 217. The Inspectorate Cadre was the most competitive of the 3: 128,604 applications for 367 places, or one in 350. The Customs Assistant Cadre received 168,081 applications for 2,210 places, one in 76.”

He encouraged candidates whose names did not make it to the final list not to lose faith, adding that there were not enough openings to employ more applicants, despite many meeting the NCS requirements..

“I want to speak directly to the more than 560,000 Nigerians who applied and whose names are not on this list. 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. As I will explain shortly, the next opportunity is not years away.”

He explained that the recruitment exercise reflected the national colouration.

“The Service is a national institution, and this exercise reflects that. All 36 states of the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory are represented on the final list, without exception.

“The allocation is equal across states by design. Each of the 36 states receives an identical number of places in each cadre: 35 in the Superintendent Cadre, 10 in the Inspectorate Cadre and 60 in the Customs Assistant Cadre, giving 105 places to every state. The Federal Capital Territory receives 72 places in accordance with the applicable formula. No state received more than another.”

Aggregated by geopolitical zone, the North West received 735 slots and the North Central 702, reflecting the seven states in each of those zones together with the Federal Capital Territory.

The North East, South South and South West each got 630 places, being six states apiece, and the South East got a total of 525, being five.

The NCS said the variation between zones arose solely from the number of states each contains, adding that not one place was allocated at the discretion of any officer of this Service.

According to Adeniyi, a total of 839 women were employed of the 3,852 places, or 21.8 per cent of the intake.

“I want to place that figure in its proper context. Women made up 21.2 per cent of the applications received.

“Their share of the places offered therefore slightly exceeds their share of the applications; the exercise selected women at a rate marginally above the rate at which they applied.
“The point is sharper still when the two are compared directly.

“A woman who applied to this exercise stood a marginally better chance of selection than a man who applied. From 121,479 applications by women, 839 were selected: one in 144.”

From 452,198 applications by men, 3,011 were selected: one in 150.

“The pattern holds in 2 of the 3 cadres: in the Customs Assistant Cadre the ratio was one in 54 for women against one in 81 for men, and in the Inspectorate Cadre one in 269 against one in 375. Only in the Superintendent Cadre did the ratio favour male applicants, at one in 210 against one in 238.”

The composition of the vacancies themselves is the principal factor in the overall figure. Some 85 per cent of the places in this exercise are in core enforcement and general duty roles, anti-smuggling patrol, border operations, and field examination, which are physically demanding and often carry personal risk.

Adeniyi noted that these roles attracted proportionally fewer applications from women than did the specialist and support functions, where female applications ran several points higher.

“Equal consideration was given throughout, and in the specialist and support streams women are represented in numbers close to their share of that applicant pool.”

He explained that the Service was not content to leave the matter there, adding that the NCS intends to work more deliberately on attracting qualified women into the enforcement stream in future exercises, because a Customs administration that reflects the country it serves is stronger.

The Customs boss noted that this year’s recruitment exercise is of a young intake, with the median age of the successful candidates being 26 years.

While by cadre, the median is 29 years in the Superintendent Cadre, 27 years in the Inspectorate Cadre, and 24 years in the Customs Assistant Cadre.
Close to three-quarters of those selected are under 30.

“This matters for a practical reason. These officers will carry the Service through the next 3 decades of its work, and they are entering at a point when Customs administration worldwide is being reshaped by technology, data and automated risk management. They are of the generation best placed to absorb that change and to build on it”, Adeniyi noted.

According to Adeniyi, the turnover in the senior and management cadre contributed to the length of this exercise.

“Let me address that directly, because it is a matter of institutional health and not of administrative inconvenience.

“The Service has, over the past two years, seen a substantial number of experienced officers reach statutory retirement. That is the ordinary operation of the Public Service Rules, and it is not in itself a cause for concern.

“What matters is how an institution manages it. I am satisfied that the Service has remained stable throughout, that our operational performance has not faltered, and that our revenue and enforcement outcomes have been sustained.

“That stability has been made possible by the consistent support of His Excellency, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, by the guidance of the Nigeria Customs Service Board under the chairmanship of the Honourable Minister of Finance, and by the professionalism of the officers and men of this Service.

“We are working deliberately to ensure continuity at the top of the organisation. But continuity at the top means very little if the base is not replenished.

“That is the lesson this exercise has taught us most forcefully, and it brings me to the most consequential announcement I have to make this afternoon.”

He explained that the NCS is moving to an annual recruitment cycle, adding that the 2026 exercise will open later in the year.
“Recruitment will no longer be an occasional event undertaken every several years. It will be a standing, predictable, yearly process.
“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.
“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.
“An annual cycle serves the Service and the applicant equally. It allows us to plan our manpower against known retirements rather than in reaction to them.
“And 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.

NCS Comptroller General, Adewale Adeniyi, hands over some assorted arms and 2, 298 live cartridges to NCCSALW Director General, Johnson Kokumo, in Lagos on February 13, 2025.

“They should watch the official channels of the Service and no others. I repeat the warning the Service has issued throughout this exercise: recruitment into the Nigeria Customs Service is free.”
He warned candidates against engaging in fraudulent recruitment exercise.

“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 to the Service and to the security agencies.

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The Nigeria Customs Service has announced a significant shift in its recruitment policy, stating that future recruitment exercises will be conducted annually instead of at irregular intervals.

The Comptroller-General of Customs, Adewale Adeniyi, revealed this during a press briefing on the release of the final list of successful candidates for the 2024/2025 recruitment exercise at the service headquarters in Abuja on Tuesday.

He said the decision was part of efforts to create a predictable manpower planning system that would enable the service to replace retiring officers promptly while giving young Nigerians regular opportunities to join the organisation.

According to Adeniyi, the service has moved away from a recruitment model under which applicants had to wait several years before another opportunity became available.

He explained that the new structure would make recruitment a continuous process, with the 2026 exercise expected to commence later this year.

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.”

The Comptroller-General said the lengthy process experienced during the 2024/2025 recruitment exercise was largely due to the need to establish a robust recruitment architecture capable of supporting future exercises.

He said the service had invested time and resources in building the framework, adding that subsequent recruitment exercises would benefit from the structures already put in place.

“The systems, the screening architecture and the verification processes built during this exercise now exist, and they will not have to be built again,” he said.

“The delays of this cycle were in significant part the cost of constructing that machinery. That cost has now been paid.”

Adeniyi said the annual recruitment model would benefit both the service and prospective applicants by improving workforce planning and reducing uncertainty among young Nigerians seeking employment.

He explained that the approach would enable the service to anticipate manpower gaps arising from retirements and other exits instead of waiting until shortages occur before recruiting.

“An annual cycle serves the Service and the applicant equally. It allows us to plan our manpower against known retirements rather than in reaction to them,” he said.

He added that the new system would also provide clarity for unsuccessful applicants by allowing them to prepare for future opportunities without prolonged uncertainty.

“And 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 stated.

The announcement followed the conclusion of the 2024/2025 recruitment exercise, which attracted significant interest from Nigerians seeking employment in the paramilitary agency.

Adeniyi also announced that 3,852 candidates had been offered appointments across the service’s three entry cadres.

Of the successful candidates, 1,275 were recruited into the Superintendent Cadre, 367 into the Inspectorate Cadre, and 2,210 into the Customs Assistant Cadre.

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By Gloria Ikibah

Nigeria and Israel have reaffirmed their commitment to deepening bilateral cooperation in security and defence, agriculture, technology, healthcare and trade as both countries seek to strengthen their long-standing diplomatic and economic relationship.

The commitment was reaffirmed during a valedictory visit by the outgoing Israeli Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Michael Freeman, to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu, in Abuja.

Receiving the envoy, the Minister commended Ambassador Freeman for his efforts in advancing relations between Nigeria and Israel during his diplomatic assignment.

She reiterated Nigeria’s determination to broaden cooperation in key areas of mutual interest, particularly in counter-terrorism, intelligence sharing, border security, security financing and capacity building.

The Minister also underscored the need to deepen collaboration in innovation and technology by fostering stronger partnerships between Nigerian start-ups and Israeli technology companies.

She noted that Nigeria would also benefit from Israel’s expertise in water resource management and modern agricultural practices to improve food production and strengthen national food security.

Speaking during the visit, Ambassador Freeman described Nigeria as “an amazing country” with “warm and welcoming people,” stressing that sustained engagement would be crucial to unlocking the full potential of the relationship between both nations.

He reaffirmed Israel’s commitment to expanding cooperation with Nigeria across several strategic sectors.

“Israel remains committed to supporting Nigeria in innovation, agriculture, healthcare, education, skills development and security,” he said.

The outgoing envoy also expressed confidence that economic relations between both countries would continue to grow, noting that bilateral trade, currently estimated at about 200 million dollars annually, has significant room for expansion.

He said stronger partnerships between the public and private sectors of both countries would help unlock new investment opportunities and drive economic growth.

Both sides expressed optimism that the longstanding relationship between Nigeria and Israel will continue to flourish through enhanced cooperation in security, commerce, technology and sustainable development.