PMParrot/Parrot Xtra reporter, OLUDOTUN AJIBOLA recently had an encounter with the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Deesam Travels Nigeria Limited, Mr. Adeniji Aderemi Samuel. He spoke about the challenges facing the travels and tours’ industry and what government should do to end quackery in the sector among many salient issues… Excerpt:
Can our readers meet you?
I am Mr Adeniji Aderemi Samuel, a graduate of political science from the University of Ibadan. I wrote my JAMB ten years after I left secondary school. I came from a humble background but because of my desperation to travel outside Nigeria for greener pastures, I was duped by a fake agent.
What is your organization doing to enlighten people from falling into this kind of problem?
We organize training for prospective clients to tutor and enlighten them in order for them not to fall prey to the antics of fake agents. There are some things people can do on their own that can ease their travelling procedures because of the advantage of the internet.
My advice for those planning to travel outside the country for greener pastures is to plan wisely in order for them not to waste their resources and to consult registered agencies like ours for proper information.
Those planning to travel to the United Kingdom with their dependents need to have enough resources in order for them not to be stranded later. They need to follow the legal process in order not to be deported.
On December 10, we are organizing seminars for intending travelers and those who desire to pursue a career in travel and tour business in Ibadan at Ayefele Music House, Challenge, Ibadan.
We are going to teach people how to become agents to schools abroad and how they can make 2000 dollars on each candidate’s referred to the schools.
Okay, maybe I should ask you about how your agency came into existence?
Deesam Group came into existence almost nine years ago, but the whole idea started around 15 years back when I intended to travel to Europe. I had the intention of travelling abroad particularly to the United Kingdom. The first time I applied for a UK visa was in 2007 but I was denied the opportunity because I presented fake documents. The travel agent who did the processing for me gave me fake documents and when I got to the embassy with all the documents, I was denied visa and also banned for five years.
I later realized that I had been duped and this made me more curious about the whole process and I really wanted to know more about travels and tours.
Out of curiosity, I started researching on the internet to know more about travelling procedures without involving a third party. Later I got to know about a University in Australia but the tuition fee was very expensive but I could not afford to pay it because of my humble background.
Despite all these, I was not discouraged until I got a scholarship opportunity that required me to write GRE before I could qualify to access the scholarship.
Upon my return to the country around 2014/2015, I set up Deesam Travels and we started from Deesam Consult and later to Deesam Travels but we have changed our business name to limited. Presently, we are known as Deesam Group.
What distinguishes your organization from other travelling agencies?
Since the inception of our company, our focus has been on education even though we engage in other forms of services such as visiting visa, vacation, immigration and others but we focus more on educational service. We have several students in the UK, USA, Canada and other European countries. By January some of our clients that are students will be traveling for their academic pursuits in Canada.
Since inception, we have had more than 40 students that are doing wonderfully well in various countries around the world. In tourism, we have taken people on tour, holidays, seminars to Dubai, Kigali, Rwanda. When it comes to visiting, we have more than 200 people that have passed through our company to various countries to visit their families and friends, and on immigration package we have several families that we have provided services for through express entry visa to Canada and others.
Can you highlight some of the challenges facing the travelling and tour sector in the country?
Travelling business is a global practice that needs adequate knowledge on how to book for visa, hotel reservation, educational findings, as well as the technicalities on how to get daily information from various embassies around the world.
We have different information guiding the conduct of each traveling business, and each embassy has varied information and it is important for one to be adequately informed, these processes require adequate knowledge and experience. Because of my experience in Australia, it has helped me a lot in always keeping up to the standard of getting the right information for our clients.
My experience in Australia made me understand that if I give you any information today, and if you need the information later, I have to verify the information before I give you the go ahead to use it. Traveling is beyond the scope of Nigeria, it is a global issue that involves all the countries around the world and many of these countries do change their traveling laws and policies almost on a daily basis, which is why we monitor information every hour to know what is required in any country and their various embassies.
Presently, the American embassy is not giving us any appointment date for interview until 2024 or 2025. Those are the kinds of challenges that we are facing in our sector which some people are not aware of.
What roles does the Nigerian government specifically need to play to regulate the industry?
Our governments at all levels need to come up with policies that will help to eradicate quackery in our profession. Fake traveling agents are causing havoc for innocent Nigerians through their dubious activities. We need the government to regulate the traveling agency sector because we have lots of fake traveling agents out there who are defrauding innocent Nigerians.
In advanced countries like Australia and other countries that I have travelled to, their governments see traveling agencies operators as professionals because out there, you must be qualified and must have passed through some professional training. Before you are qualified to practice, you must have passed through some stages but here in Nigeria, there are several people that are in this sector that do not have the knowledge at all.
Some people are fond of posting things on the internet telling people to come and get a visa for their choice of country, whereas they are fake traveling agents and unsuspecting Nigerians patronize them not knowing that they are illegal travel agents. We need the government to regulate this traveling sector and deal with any fake agent calling themselves professional visa consultants because this is a sector that is generating IGR for both the state and the federal government through revenue and tax collection.
We pay the government and also provide job opportunities for unemployed youths because a registered traveling agent must have an office space and must engage at least five staff like secretaries and other clerical workers in order to make the work easier. Government needs to come to our aid in assisting us in filtering out quacks in our sectors.
