After months of anticipation, the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has released the final list of successful candidates for its 2024/2025 recruitment exercise, with only 3,852 applicants emerging successful from a record 573,680 applications—a success rate of just 0.67 per cent, or roughly one in every 148 applicants.
Announcing the outcome in Abuja on Tuesday, the Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service, Adewale Adeniyi, described the exercise as one of the most competitive in the agency’s history and apologised for the delay in releasing the final list.
He said the successful candidates were drawn across three entry cadres—1,275 for the Superintendent Cadre, 367 for the Inspectorate Cadre and 2,210 for the Customs Assistant Cadre—with all 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory represented.
Adeniyi said every application underwent multiple stages of screening, including computer-based examinations and identity verification against the national database, insisting that the integrity of the recruitment process took precedence over speed.
According to him, applicants whose records could not be immediately reconciled were subjected to further verification before the final list was approved.
He disclosed that successful candidates would still undergo physical and medical examinations before receiving final clearance from the Customs Board.
The Customs boss also announced a major policy shift, revealing that recruitment into the Service would now become an annual exercise rather than an occasional one.
He said the next recruitment exercise would commence later this year and would be completed within a single calendar year.
Addressing the more than 560,000 unsuccessful applicants, Adeniyi urged them not to lose hope, stressing that many met the requirements but were edged out by the limited number of vacancies.
He explained that each state received an equal allocation of positions—105 slots comprising 35 Superintendent, 10 Inspectorate and 60 Customs Assistant positions—while the FCT received 72 slots under the approved formula.
On gender representation, Adeniyi said 839 women, representing 21.8 per cent of successful candidates, secured appointments, slightly exceeding the proportion of female applicants.
He noted that the recruitment was largely for physically demanding operational and anti-smuggling roles, which attracted fewer female applicants than specialist positions.
The Comptroller-General added that the median age of successful candidates is 26 years, with nearly three-quarters of those recruited below the age of 30, describing the intake as critical to the Service’s long-term modernisation agenda.
He warned applicants against fraudsters, insisting that recruitment into the Customs Service remains entirely free.
“No candidate has paid, and no candidate should pay, any individual or group for recruitment. Anyone demanding payment is a criminal and should be reported to the Service and relevant security agencies,” he said.