Nigeria Customs Service has announced the recruitment of 3,852 fresh officers across the service’s three entry cadres.
This is just as the NCS expressed resolve to conduct future recruitment exercises annually rather than at irregular intervals, announcing a major shift in its recruitment policy.
Of the successful 3,852 candidates, 1,275 were recruited into the Superintendent Cadre, 367 into the Inspectorate Cadre, and 2,210 into the Customs Assistant Cadre.
NCS Comptroller-General, Adewale Adeniyi, disclosed these on Tuesday while briefing newsmen on the release of the final list of successful candidates for the 2024/2025 recruitment exercise at the service headquarters in Abuja.
Adeniyi said the decision to henceforth recruit yearly 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 service.
He noted that the service had moved away from a recruitment model under which applicants had to wait several years before another opportunity became available.
Adeniyi explained that the new structure would make recruitment a continuous process, with the 2026 exercise expected to commence later this year.
He said the NCS now has the systems, screening framework and verification processes required to conduct future recruitment exercises more efficiently.
The NCS boss said, “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.
“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.
The NCS, he said, had invested time and resources in building the framework, adding that subsequent recruitment exercises would benefit from the structures already put in place.
He added, “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.”
Adeniyi said the annual recruitment model would benefit both the NCS and prospective applicants by improving workforce planning and reducing uncertainty among young Nigerians seeking employment.
According to him, 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.
Adeniyi 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.
