The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has announced that it will begin recruiting personnel every year, ending the previous system of conducting recruitment exercises at irregular intervals. Comptroller-General of Customs, Adewale Adeniyi, disclosed the new policy on Tuesday while announcing the final list of successful candidates for the 2024/2025 recruitment exercise at the service headquarters in Abuja.
Annual recruitment to replace old system
Adeniyi said the new recruitment policy would create a more predictable manpower planning system. He added that it would also give qualified Nigerians a regular opportunity to join the service.
According to him, the Customs Service will no longer wait several years before opening another recruitment 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.”
2026 exercise to open later this year
The Comptroller-General announced that the 2026 recruitment exercise would begin later this year. He said the service intends to complete the entire process within one calendar year, starting from the advertisement stage and ending with the release of the final list.
“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.”
New framework to speed up recruitment
Adeniyi explained that the 2024/2025 recruitment exercise took longer because the service had to establish a reliable recruitment framework. He said the Customs Service has now put the necessary screening, verification and recruitment systems in place. As a result, future recruitment exercises should proceed faster.
“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 added that the delays experienced during the last exercise helped the service build a stronger recruitment process for future exercises.
Customs recruits 3,852 successful candidates
The Comptroller-General also confirmed that the service has offered employment to 3,852 successful applicants in the 2024/2025 recruitment exercise.
According to him, 1,275 candidates joined the Superintendent Cadre, 367 entered the Inspectorate Cadre, while 2,210 secured appointments in the Customs Assistant Cadre.
Adeniyi said the annual recruitment system would help the service replace retiring officers without delay. He added that unsuccessful applicants would also know when the next recruitment exercise would begin instead of waiting for years.
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