Customs Boss Adeniyi Wins IPRA Award for Strategic Communication

By Stella Okocha

The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has received international recognition for its strategic communication and stakeholder engagement, with Comptroller-General of Customs, Adewale Adeniyi, honoured with 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, in recognition of the NCS’s approach to transparent communication, stakeholder engagement and ethical public relations in communicating 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 endorsement of the Service’s reform and communication efforts.

He said the honour would encourage the NCS to deepen its use of emerging technologies, particularly artificial intelligence (AI), 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 stressed the importance of effective communication to the success of government reforms, noting that citizens and other stakeholders needed to understand the objectives, implementation challenges and expected benefits of such initiatives.

According to him, the NCS reform agenda is aligned with the economic policies of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, particularly efforts to enhance Nigeria’s trade competitiveness, facilitate exports and strengthen the country’s participation in the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).

The Customs chief also celebrated Nigeria’s achievement at the IPRA Grand Prix, where Image Merchants Promotion Limited (IMPR), publishers of PRNigeria and Economic Confidential, received the top honour for its campaign, AI for Crisis Communication: From Study to Strategy.

The campaign emerged from a research project led by IMPR Chief Executive Officer, Yushau Shuaib, in collaboration with the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) and the Centre for Crisis Communication.

The research examined emerging challenges associated with artificial intelligence, including misinformation, deepfakes and digital information disorder, and translated its findings into a strategic communication campaign.

Earlier, President of IPRA, Esther Cobbah, highlighted the significance of returning to Athens for the 2026 gathering.

She noted that the city was where the association developed its Code of Conduct for public relations practice 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,” Cobbah said.

The 2026 IPRA Golden World Awards brought together public relations professionals, organisations and agencies from across the world to celebrate excellence and ethical communication practice.