The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has once again earned international acclaim, clinching the Golden World Award (GWA) for Impactful Public Relations in Customs Management at the 2025 IPRA Gala held on October 3 at the M\u00f6venpick Hotel, Accra, Ghana.<\/p>\n
The award, presented by IPRA President Nata\u0161a Pavlovi\u0107 Bujas, celebrates NCS\u2019s strategic communication excellence. The winning entry\u2014authored by Image Merchants Promotion Limited\u2014documents the visionary PR reforms led by Comptroller-General Bashir Adewale Adeniyi, MFR, and has become a benchmark for public relations scholarship in Nigeria.<\/p>\n
Philip Sheppard, IPRA Secretary-General, praised the publication for offering actionable strategies and showcasing real-world PR leadership rooted in NCS\u2019s transformation journey.<\/p>\n
Receiving the award on behalf of the Service, Assistant Comptroller Abdullahi Maiwada, NCS\u2019s National PRO, expressed gratitude, noting that the honour reinforces the Service\u2019s commitment to transparency, professionalism, and stakeholder engagement.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis award is a validation of the Nigeria Customs Service’s commitment to professionalism, transparency, and stakeholder engagement,” Maiwada said. “Under the leadership of the Comptroller-General, we have repositioned communication as a strategic tool for reform trust-building.\u201d <\/p>\n
It will be recalled that the Service was earlier honoured in 2024 with the prestigious GWA for Crisis Communication at the IPRA Gala in Belgrade, Serbia. This year\u2019s award builds on that feat, highlighting NCS\u2019s consistent innovation in communication and reputation management.<\/p>\n
The award ceremony formed part of the Public Relations Knowledge Sharing Conference held from Wednesday, 1st to Friday, 3rd October 2025, at the Accra International Conference Centre. The conference, themed \u201cGlobal Realities and Innovative Communication,\u201d was attended by leading communication experts, including Dr Ike Neliaku, President of the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR); Nata\u0161a Pavlovi\u0107 Bujas, President of IPRA; Arik Karani, President of the African Public Relations Association (APRA); and Esther Amba Numaba Cobbah, President of the Institute of Public Relations (IPR), Ghana, among other PR professionals across Africa.<\/p>\n
At the closing session of the conference earlier on Friday, the President of Ghana, His Excellency John Dramani Mahama, urged public relations professionals to uphold the highest standards of ethics and competence in their practice.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs communicators, you hold the power to shape narratives and influence public trust,\u201d President Mahama said. \u201cOur continent needs professionals who communicate with integrity, clarity, and purpose to support national development.\u201d<\/p>\n
Also speaking at the Gala night, Ghana\u2019s Vice President, H.E. Jane Nana, congratulated all the awardees, commending their contributions to advancing strategic communication globally.<\/p>\n
To crown the night, Esther Amba Numaba Cobbah, President of the Institute of Public Relations (IPR), Ghana, assumed the mantle as the new President of the International Public Relations Association (IPRA), succeeding Nata\u0161a Pavlovi\u0107 Bujas. Her emergence as the first African to lead the 70-year-old global body marks a historic milestone and a moment of pride for the continent\u2019s communication professionals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has once again earned international acclaim, clinching the Golden World Award (GWA) for Impactful Public Relations in Customs Management at the 2025 IPRA Gala held on October 3 at the M\u00f6venpick Hotel, Accra, Ghana. The award, presented by IPRA President Nata\u0161a Pavlovi\u0107 Bujas, celebrates NCS\u2019s strategic communication excellence. The winning […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8738,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peoplesforumonline.com.ng\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peoplesforumonline.com.ng\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peoplesforumonline.com.ng\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peoplesforumonline.com.ng\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peoplesforumonline.com.ng\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8737"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/peoplesforumonline.com.ng\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8737\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8739,"href":"https:\/\/peoplesforumonline.com.ng\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8737\/revisions\/8739"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peoplesforumonline.com.ng\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peoplesforumonline.com.ng\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peoplesforumonline.com.ng\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peoplesforumonline.com.ng\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}