The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has announced a major overhaul of its recruitment process, introducing an annual recruitment cycle to replace the irregular exercises that have characterised its hiring in recent years.
Comptroller-General of Customs Adewale Adeniyi unveiled the new policy during a briefing at the NCS headquarters in Abuja on Tuesday, alongside the release of the final list of successful candidates for the 2024/2025 recruitment exercise.
Adeniyi said the move would establish a predictable and sustainable manpower planning system, enabling the service to fill vacancies arising from retirements promptly while providing young Nigerians with regular opportunities to pursue careers in the organisation.
He explained that the NCS was moving away from a system under which applicants often waited several years for recruitment to resume, adding that the 2026 recruitment exercise is expected to commence later this year.
“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,” Adeniyi said.
“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.”
According to the Comptroller-General, the lengthy 2024/2025 recruitment exercise reflected the time required to establish a robust recruitment architecture capable of supporting future annual exercises.
He said the service had invested heavily in developing the systems, screening framework and verification processes needed to make subsequent recruitment exercises faster and more efficient.
“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 strengthen workforce planning by allowing the service to anticipate staffing needs rather than reacting to shortages after they arise.
He added that the new approach would also provide greater certainty for applicants, ensuring unsuccessful candidates know exactly when the next opportunity will become available instead of waiting years for another recruitment announcement.
The announcement came as the service concluded its 2024/2025 recruitment exercise, which attracted widespread interest from job seekers across the country.
A total of 3,852 candidates have been offered appointments across the service’s three entry cadres, with 1,275 recruited into the Superintendent Cadre, 367 into the Inspectorate Cadre and 2,210 into the Customs Assistant Cadre.