The Nigeria Customs Service will recruit every year, with the 2026 exercise opening later this year.
Comptroller-General of Customs Adewale Adeniyi announced the new recruitment plan on Tuesday while releasing the final results of the 2024/2025 exercise in Abuja.
“The Nigeria Customs Service is moving to an annual recruitment cycle,” Adeniyi said. “Recruitment will no longer be an occasional event undertaken every several years. It will be a standing, predictable, yearly process.”
The latest exercise attracted 573,680 applications, but Customs selected only 3,852 candidates.
The successful candidates comprised 1,275 for the Superintendent Cadre, 367 for the Inspectorate Cadre and 2,210 for the Customs Assistant Cadre.
Inspectorate recorded the toughest competition, with 128,604 applications for 367 positions.
Meanwhile, the recruitment began in December 2024 and took 20 months to complete. Customs screened the applications, conducted computer-based examinations and checked candidates against the national identity database.
Adeniyi said the new process would help Customs complete future exercises within a calendar year.
“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,” he said.
Customs also warned applicants against paying anyone for employment.
“Recruitment into the Nigeria Customs Service is free,” Adeniyi said. “No candidate has paid, and no candidate should pay any person or group for a place on this list.”
The final selection covered all 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory under the Federal Character principle.
Each state received 105 positions, while the FCT received 72.
