Nigeria Customs Service Releases Final List of 3,852 Successful Candidates After 20-Month Recruitment Delay

The single sharpest fact in this story is the 0.67 per cent success rate of applicants who made the cut for the Nigeria Customs Service's 2024/2025 recruitment. This is the lowest percentage in the history of the service.

The Comptroller-General of Customs, Adewale Adeniyi, announced the release of the final list on Tuesday during a press briefing in Abuja. Adeniyi explained that the recruitment process recorded one of the highest levels of competition in the history of the service, with just 0.67 per cent of applicants making the final selection.

The successful candidates were selected across the three entry cadres of the service, comprising 1,275 candidates for the Superintendent Cadre, 367 for the Inspectorate Cadre, and 2,210 for the Customs Assistant Cadre. Adeniyi said the announcement marked the conclusion of a recruitment process that began in December 2024 and was delayed by the huge number of applications, administrative challenges, and the need to ensure a transparent selection process.

The recruitment exercise lasted 20 months, from its commencement in December 2024 to the release of the final list in August 2026. Adeniyi said the service received an unprecedented number of applications, all of which had to undergo multiple stages of verification before the final list was produced.

The Comptroller-General highlighted the intense competition that characterised the exercise, noting that thousands of qualified Nigerians could not secure placement because of the limited number of available slots. He said the overall selection ratio showed that only one candidate emerged from every 148 applicants.

A total of 3,852 candidates have been offered places across the three cadres of entry: 1,275 in the Superintendent Cadre, 367 in the Inspectorate Cadre, and 2,210 in the Customs Assistant Cadre.

The Superintendent Cadre recorded 276,995 applications for 1,275 positions, representing one successful candidate for every 217 applicants. The Inspectorate Cadre was the most competitive category, attracting 128,604 applications for only 367 slots, meaning one applicant succeeded out of every 350 candidates.

The Customs Assistant Cadre, which had the highest number of available positions, received 168,081 applications for 2,210 slots, representing one successful applicant out of every 76 candidates. Adeniyi urged unsuccessful applicants not to lose hope, assuring them that another opportunity would come sooner than expected.

I want to speak directly to the more than 560,000 Nigerians who applied and whose names are not on this list, he said. You were not rejected; you were unlucky in a field of extraordinary competition.

The Comptroller-General also disclosed that the recruitment process complied fully with the Federal Character principle, with all 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory represented in the final list.