The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has released the final list of 3,852 successful candidates for its 2024/2025 recruitment exercise just as it announced a major shift to an annual recruitment cycle aimed at ensuring a more predictable and efficient hiring process.
The Comptroller-General of Customs, Adewale Adeniyi, who disclosed this during a press briefing in Abuja on Tuesday said the successful candidates were selected from a record 573,680 applications received nationwide.
According to him, the successful candidates comprise 1,275 recruits for the Superintendent Cadre, 367 for the Inspectorate Cadre and 2,210 for the Customs Assistant Cadre, bringing the recruitment exercise, which commenced in December 2024, to a close.
Adeniyi apologised to applicants and their families over the lengthy recruitment process, acknowledging that the exercise took longer than expected.
He explained that the delay resulted from the unprecedented volume of applications, the retirement of a significant number of senior officers during the period, and the Service’s determination to ensure a transparent and credible selection process.
He noted that every successful candidate passed through multiple stages of screening, including application verification, a computer-based examination, and authentication of credentials using the national identity database.
The Customs boss disclosed that successful candidates would still undergo physical and medical assessments before receiving final approval from the Nigeria Customs Service Board.
Describing the recruitment as one of the most competitive in the Service’s history, Adeniyi said only 3,852 applicants were selected from 573,680 applications, representing a success rate of 0.67 per cent, or approximately one successful candidate for every 148 applicants.
He added that the Inspectorate Cadre recorded the highest competition, with one successful applicant emerging from every 350 applications, while the Superintendent Cadre recorded a ratio of one in 217 and the Customs Assistant Cadre one in 76.
Addressing unsuccessful applicants, the Comptroller-General urged them not to lose hope, stressing that many met the recruitment requirements but were unable to secure places because of limited vacancies.
He announced that the Nigeria Customs Service would henceforth conduct recruitment annually instead of waiting several years between exercises.
According to him, the 2026 recruitment exercise will commence later this year and, unlike the just-concluded exercise, will be completed within a single calendar year.
He explained that the systems, screening architecture and verification mechanisms developed during the current recruitment exercise would significantly shorten future recruitment timelines.
“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, ” he said.
On the distribution of successful candidates, Adeniyi said the recruitment fully complied with the Federal Character principle, with every state allocated 105 positions across the three cadres, while the Federal Capital Territory received 72 slots under the applicable formula.
He also disclosed that women secured 839 positions, representing 21.8 per cent of the total intake, slightly exceeding their proportion of the overall applications received.
The Comptroller-General said the Service would intensify efforts to encourage more qualified women to apply for physically demanding enforcement roles in future recruitment exercises.
He further revealed that the median age of successful candidates is 26 years, with nearly three-quarters of the recruits below the age of 30, noting that the young workforce would strengthen the Service’s ongoing digital transformation and modern customs administration.
Adeniyi advised successful candidates to await official communication through the contact details submitted during their applications and warned the public against fraudsters demanding money for recruitment.
He reiterated that recruitment into the Nigeria Customs Service remains completely free and urged anyone approached for payment to report such individuals to the Service and relevant security agencies.
Congratulating the successful candidates, Adeniyi said they had earned their positions through merit and would be expected to uphold the professionalism and integrity of the Nigeria Customs Service from the outset of their careers.
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