Why Customs Is Giving Out Trophies — And Why It Matters for Nigerian Trade

_Recognition as Policy: How Rewarding Professionalism Is Becoming a Reform Tool_  

By Lod Onyeji 

PORT HARCOURT — On Thursday, 23 July 2026, the Nigeria Customs Service did something it rarely did a decade ago: it threw a party for its own communicators.

At the closing dinner of the 2026 NCS Public Relations Conference, the Service honored officers for excellence in public relations, dedication, and professionalism. CGC Adewale Adeniyi, MFR received the Lifetime Achievement Award for institutionalizing strategic communication. Other recipients included SC Elizabeth Anawanti, SC Umar Abdullahi, for Distinguished Service in PR; CSC Nuruddeen Sa’idu and CSC Yusuf for contributions to the PR Unit; and CSC Lukman Abdullahi-Lagos who won the Alex Akiyenyele Award for PRO of the Year.

The message from DC Abdullahi Maiwada, National PRO, was direct: “Recognising excellence is one of the most effective ways of motivating officers to do more.”

That is not sentiment. It is management science. The case for awards therefore is data-driven on what recognition actually does for organizations that systematically reward professionalism and how they see measurable gains in performance, retention, and public trust. Customs agencies worldwide have learned this.

1. U.S. Customs and Border Protection: The Commissioner's  Awards 

CBP runs an annual awards program for officers in communications, trade, and enforcement. After expanding the program in 2018 and tying recognition to KPIs, CBP’s internal Gallup engagement score rose from 52% to 67% by 2023. Employee turnover in public affairs dropped 19%. More importantly, public trust in CBP, per Pew, rose 8 points during the same period. CBP credits the awards with reinforcing ethical conduct and service standards across 60,000 personnel.

2. Singapore Customs: The “Excellence Awards” and Service Culture has since 2005, in Singapore Customs been organizing an annual awards ceremony for officers who demonstrate innovation and stakeholders' engagement. The program is linked to promotion. Result: Singapore’s LPI “Customs” score rose from 3.90 in 2010 to 4.10 in 2023, the highest globally. Cargo clearance time fell to 10 minutes. A 2022 study by NUS found that 74% of Singapore Customs officers cited “recognition” as a top motivator, ahead of salary.

3. Kenya Revenue Authority: CEO Awards for Customer Service

KRA institutionalized quarterly awards for staff in communications and taxpayer service. Between 2016-2023, voluntary tax compliance rose from 48% to 61%, and cargo dwell time at Mombasa dropped from 11.9 days to 3.6 days. KRA’s own data shows that units with award-winning officers had 23% fewer public complaints.

The mechanism is simple: recognition codifies behavior. It tells 15,000 officers what “good” looks like.

What NCS did in Port Harcourt is symbolically symbolizing the ethos of corporate cooperative interactivity.

The 2026 PR Conference awards were not ceremonial. They targeted the exact functions that determine institutional reputation:

- Leadership: Lifetime Award to CGC Adeniyi for embedding PR into operations and reforms.  

- Service Delivery: Distinguished Service Awards to SC Anawanti and SC Abdullahi for field PR that improved trader compliance.  

- Institution Building: Awards to CSC Sa’idu and CSC Yusuf for developing the PR Unit’s capacity.  

- Individual Excellence: Alex Akiyenyele Award to CSC Lukman Abdullahi-Lagos for PRO of the Year.  

- Support Staff: Recognition for NCBN staff Abdulkarim Zurmi and Lucy Nyambi, acknowledging that communication is a team function.

Ike Neliaku, President of NIPR, noted that “strategic communication remains central to institutional success and public confidence.” Alhassan Yahaya, NUJ President, added that rewarding professionalism “lays a solid foundation for sustainable growth.”

It is imperative to know why This Matters for Customs Reform.

NCS is in the middle of a modernization push: B’Odogwu, MIS File Tracker, AEO. But technology without culture fails. 

Data from OECD shows that customs agencies with formal recognition programs have 18% higher scores on transparency and 12% faster clearance times, because officers are incentivized to solve problems publicly rather than hide them.

For Nigeria, the stakes are economic. With trade at over $50B annually and World Bank LPI ranking at 88th for “Customs,” the Service needs both systems and morale. Awards address the latter.

The risk is that recognition becomes ritual. To avoid that, NCS should do what Singapore and CBP do: publish the criteria, link awards to performance data, and track post-award outcomes like complaint reduction and media sentiment.

Conclusively, an award night is easy to dismiss. But in institutions as large and scrutinized as Customs, it is policy. 

By honoring officers who communicated clearly, served ethically, and built the PR unit, NCS is broadcasting the behavior it wants replicated. 

The U.S., Singapore, and Kenya show that when you celebrate professionalism, you get more of it. And when you get more of it, traders, investors, and citizens start to believe the institution again.

That is the return on investment Port Harcourt was really counting.