Nigeria Customs earns global recognition as Adeniyi bags IPRA award

By Adebola Muili

The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has received international recognition for its strategic communication and stakeholder engagement, with its Comptroller-General, Adewale Adeniyi, receiving a Special Award of Excellence at the 2026 International Public Relations Association (IPRA) Golden World Awards in Athens, Greece.

The award was presented on Friday, September 25, 2026, according to a statement made available to journalists on Sunday by the National Public Relations Officer of the NCS, Deputy Comptroller Abdullahi Aliyu Maiwada.

The recognition honours the Service’s approach to transparent communication, stakeholder engagement and ethical public relations in supporting the implementation and public understanding of its ongoing reforms.

The reforms include efforts to modernise Customs operations, improve trade facilitation and strengthen institutional transparency.

Receiving the award, Adeniyi described the recognition as an international acknowledgement of the Service’s reform efforts, saying it would further encourage the NCS to deepen its adoption of emerging technologies, particularly artificial intelligence, in public communication and stakeholder engagement.

“We have started using AI tools in our public communication, and we view this recognition as an invitation to do more. By 2027, we hope the NCS and more Nigerian agencies will feature prominently among global award recipients,” he said.

Adeniyi said effective communication remained critical to the success of government reforms because citizens and stakeholders needed to understand their objectives, implementation challenges and expected benefits.

He added that the NCS reform agenda aligns with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s economic policies, particularly efforts to improve Nigeria’s trade competitiveness, facilitate exports and strengthen the country’s participation in the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).

The Customs boss also celebrated Nigeria’s success at the awards, particularly the country’s win of the IPRA Grand Prix by Image Merchants Promotion Limited (IMPR), publishers of PRNigeria and Economic Confidential.

The Grand Prix was awarded for IMPR’s campaign, AI for Crisis Communication: From Study to Strategy, which emerged from a research project led by the company’s Chief Executive Officer, Yushau Shuaib, in collaboration with the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) and the Centre for Crisis Communication.

The project examined the challenges posed by artificial intelligence-driven misinformation, deepfakes and digital information disorder, translating its findings into a strategic communication initiative.

Adeniyi said the achievement reflected Nigeria’s growing participation in international strategic communication, while expressing hope that more Nigerian institutions would gain recognition at global platforms.

Earlier in her welcome remarks, the President of IPRA, Esther Cobbah, said the return of the association to Athens was particularly significant because the city was where its Code of Conduct for public relations practice was developed 60 years ago.

“Sixty years ago, in Athens, we built the code of ethics for public relations practice. Today, we have come back to Athens to see how we have deployed those ethics in our work,” she said.