Abstract

The productivity of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has ripple effect on all
the sectors of the Nigeria economy and this is because the Customs is considered
a policy instrument for enforcing trade policies and enhancing growth of
domestic economy through boarder protection. However, the performance of
the NCS has experienced a decline in unit of transactions recorded from 2015-
2019 and had frustrated the ease of business transactions in Nigeria. These
challenges has been attributed to the recruitment procedure, training and
development. Hence, this study examined the recruitment, training and employee
productivity in the Nigeria customs service. A mixed research design was
adopted with a population of 7,347 officers and men of the NCS. A sample size
of 383 was computed through Krejcie and Morgan sample-size determination
formula. The study adopted the stratified random sampling to select the officers
and men of the NCS in Abuja and Lagos command units from three management
cadres. Questionnaire and interview guide were the instrument of
data collection. Response rate of 87.7% was achieved, and data were analyzed
and presented through descriptive and inferential statistics. Findings revealed
that recruitment and selection had significant effect on employee productivity
(R2 = 0.054; 0.189; t= 4.385 p< 0> significant effect on employee productivity (R2 = 0.100; 0.269; t= 6.086; p<
0.05) in the Nigeria Customs Service. This study concluded that human resources
management practices had weak effect on employee productivity in
the NCS. The study recommended that the leadership of the NCS to adopt
strategic human resource management practices; one that identify requiredhuman resource need through ethical process and identify area of need of the
human resource and tailor training programmes in the direction to help redirect
the energy of it personnel to deliver superior-world class public service.