The Nigeria Customs Service, NCS has concluded its 2024/2025 recruitment exercise, offering employment to 3,852 successful candidates while announcing a shift to annual recruitment to provide more regular opportunities for young Nigerians.
Comptroller-General of Customs disclosed the development during a press briefing on the release of the final recruitment list, describing the new annual recruitment cycle as a major institutional reform aimed at improving workforce planning and reducing the waiting period for applicants.
The successful candidates comprise 1,275 recruits in the Superintendent Cadre, 367 in the Inspectorate Cadre and 2,210 in the Customs Assistant Cadre, bringing the recruitment exercise, which commenced in December 2024, to a close.
The Comptroller-General apologised for the delay in concluding the exercise, explaining that the Service received 573,680 applications for the 3,852 available positions. He said every application underwent rigorous screening, including computer-based examinations, credential verification and checks against the national identity database to ensure that only qualified candidates emerged.
He noted that the recruitment process was one of the most competitive in the Service’s history, with an overall success rate of 0.67 per cent, equivalent to one successful applicant for every 148 candidates. The Inspectorate Cadre recorded the stiffest competition, attracting 128,604 applications for just 367 vacancies.
According to him, all 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory are represented in the final list, with the allocation based strictly on the Federal Character principle to ensure equal representation across the federation.
The Service also disclosed that women secured 839 positions, representing 21.8 per cent of the total intake, slightly exceeding their share of the overall applications received. It added that future recruitment exercises would focus on encouraging more qualified women to apply for operational and enforcement roles.
The Comptroller-General described the intake as a youthful workforce, with a median age of 26 years, noting that the recruits are expected to support the Service’s ongoing digital transformation and technology-driven customs operations over the coming decades.
Highlighting the significance of the new recruitment policy, he announced that the Nigeria Customs Service will now conduct recruitment annually, beginning with the 2026 exercise later this year. He said the annual cycle would enable the Service to plan its manpower needs more effectively while giving unsuccessful applicants a predictable opportunity to reapply without waiting several years.
He urged successful candidates to await official communication from the Service and warned applicants against paying money to anyone for employment, stressing that recruitment into the Nigeria Customs Service remains free.