The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has unveiled the final list of successful candidates for its 2024/2025 recruitment exercise, with 3,852 applicants selected from a total of 573,680 applications received nationwide.
Speaking during a briefing on Tuesday, the Comptroller-General of Customs, Adewale Adeniyi, said the successful candidates were recruited into the Superintendent, Inspectorate and Customs Assistant cadres, with every state of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory represented.
Adeniyi apologised for the delay in concluding the exercise and announced that the Service would now adopt an annual recruitment cycle, with the next exercise scheduled to commence later this year.
He assured Nigerians that the recruitment process was transparent, merit-based and free of interference, warning applicants against paying anyone for employment opportunities.
“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.”
The Customs boss encouraged unsuccessful applicants not to lose hope, noting that the high level of competition meant many qualified candidates could not be accommodated.
“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.”
Adeniyi explained that the recruitment reflected Nigeria’s federal character, with equal allocation of positions across all states.
“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.”
By geopolitical zones, the North-West and North-Central recorded the highest allocations with 735 and 702 slots respectively, while the North-East, South-West and South-South each received 630 positions. The South-East accounted for 525 slots, reflecting its five-state structure.
The Comptroller-General stressed that the distribution was based solely on the number of states in each zone and not influenced by any individual or official.
Women Recruitment
Adeniyi disclosed that 839 women, representing 21.8 per cent of the successful candidates, secured positions in the recruitment exercise.
“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.”
He added that 3,011 men were recruited from 452,198 male applicants, representing a success rate of one in 150.
According to him, women performed particularly well in the Customs Assistant and Inspectorate cadres, while male applicants had a slight advantage in the Superintendent cadre.
Adeniyi explained that the overall gender balance reflected the nature of available positions, as about 85 per cent of vacancies were in physically demanding enforcement roles, which attracted fewer female applicants.
“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 said the Service plans to encourage more qualified women to apply for enforcement roles in future recruitment exercises to improve gender representation.
Age Profile
The Comptroller-General revealed that the recruitment exercise attracted a youthful workforce, with a median age of 26 years.
He said the median age was 29 years for the Superintendent cadre, 27 years for the Inspectorate cadre and 24 years for the Customs Assistant cadre, while nearly three-quarters of successful candidates are below the age of 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.
Institutional Stability
Adeniyi acknowledged that the retirement of many senior officers contributed to the lengthy recruitment process but maintained that the Service remained operationally stable.
“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.”
He credited the continued support of President Bola Tinubu, the Nigeria Customs Service Board chaired by the Minister of Finance, and the professionalism of Customs personnel for maintaining institutional stability.
Annual Recruitment
Adeniyi announced that the Service would now conduct recruitment every 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.”
Next Steps
The Comptroller-General said successful candidates would receive official notifications through the contact information submitted during their applications and advised them to rely only on official Customs communication channels.
He reiterated that recruitment into the Nigeria Customs Service remains free of charge.
“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.”
