By Saminu Ibrahim
The Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Adewale Adeniyi, has received a Special Award of Excellence at the 2026 International Public Relations Association (IPRA) Golden World Awards held in Athens, Greece.
Adeniyi received the award on Friday in recognition of the NCS’s strategic communication, stakeholder engagement and ethical public relations efforts in supporting the Service’s ongoing reforms.
The recognition also acknowledged the Customs Service’s communication approach in promoting public understanding of initiatives focused on modernising operations, improving trade facilitation and strengthening institutional transparency.
Receiving the award, Adeniyi said the recognition 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.
The Customs boss stressed that effective communication was critical to the success of government reforms, noting that citizens and stakeholders needed to understand their objectives, implementation challenges and expected benefits.
He said the NCS reform agenda was aligned with the economic policies of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, particularly efforts to improve Nigeria’s trade competitiveness, facilitate exports and strengthen the country’s participation in the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
Adeniyi also celebrated Nigeria’s success at the IPRA Grand Prix, describing it as an indication of the country’s growing participation in international strategic communication.
The Grand Prix was won by Image Merchants Promotion Limited (IMPR), publishers of PRNigeria and Economic Confidential, 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 project examined the challenges posed by AI-driven misinformation, deepfakes and digital information disorder, translating its findings into a strategic communication initiative.
Earlier, President of IPRA, Esther Cobbah, said the return of the association to Athens was significant because the city was where its Code of Conduct for public relations practice was developed 60 years ago.
She said the 2026 gathering provided an opportunity to celebrate individuals, agencies and organisations that had applied the principles of ethical communication while achieving excellence in their work.
“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.
