Some applicants shortlisted for the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) recruitment exercise were left stranded on Monday as the agency’s online portal crashed during a scheduled pre-exam session.
Naijaonpoint reports that the exercise was designed to help candidates familiarise themselves with the system ahead of the computer-based test (CBT), but instead returned multiple error messages, including “gateway time-out” and “500 internal server error.”
Several applicants took to social media to vent their anger over the glitches, with many saying they had spent hours trying without success.
A user identified as Dr Terrific in a post on 𝕏 described the experience as “horrendous.”
“Nigerian Customs Service pre–CBT has displayed horrendous error messages since 3 pm set for the exams. Been trying to set the platform up for someone, and it is just an odious outcome! Fix this, and let no candidate take the fall for your failings,” he wrote.
Another user, Joe_Akir, lamented that each login attempt was met with a “500 Internal Server Error” message, while Musty said the incident highlighted how “unprepared” the recruitment portal was for a national exercise.
“This is what we’re facing during the Nigeria Customs pretest in 2025. How is a national recruitment portal this unprepared? Thousands of applicants are stuck, frustrated, and unheard. Please fix this. We deserve a fair process,” he said.
Customs Blames Heavy Traffic
Acknowledging the glitches, the NCS, in a post on its official 𝕏 handle, attributed the difficulties to heavy traffic on the portal.
“The service is aware of the current issue with the site; we’re actively experiencing high traffic which may cause temporary inaccessibility. Kindly keep trying while our team works tirelessly to resolve the issue,” the agency assured.
On September 10, the NCS disclosed that it had received 573,523 applications during the first phase of its ongoing recruitment.
The second stage, the CBT, is scheduled to be held online between September 14 and 21, 2025, with the pre-test session fixed to familiarise candidates with the system two days before the main examination.
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