Dr. Olaniyi Kolawole, is the Managing Consultant of Solid-Link Consulting Limited. He is a brilliant and experienced Nigerian Travel Expert. A man of integrity and making impacts in Nigeria, Ireland and globally, through his profession. In this interview, he opened up on the information people really need about successful travelling, relocation and establishment in countries of their choice.
You are welcome to The Interviewers Magazine sir, can you briefly tell us about yourself and your family background?
My name is Olaniyi Kolawole from Kwara State. I am from a family of 5 and my parents were teachers. I relocated to Ireland over 2 decades ago and by God’s grace, I still reside there with my family.
My migration experience made me passionate about guiding intending migrants on the procedures involved. I left Nigeria 25 years ago following advices of “armchair” travel consultants, who did not base their advices on research and evidential experience. Rather, such consultants usually fabricate stories to sell their destinations and make money at the expense of vulnerable travel-abroad enthusiasts.
This negative experience propelled me to study Migration in order to acquire deep knowledge of its processes, dynamics and outcomes. I did this, believing that it would equip me with necessary skills to effectively and truthfully guide intending migrants. I studied it up to Doctoral level in Ireland.
With the knowledge and experience I gathered during the course of my study, and also as a University Lecturer at the University College Cork, my wife and I set up Solid-Link Consulting Limited in 2015.
The goal of Solid-Link is to provide expert advice to people who want to either study or work and settle abroad. And to the glory of God, we have been doing this since 2015 effectively.
There is a surge for people to relocate (japa) from Nigeria to any other country where they think life will be easier and cheaper for them. Bearing this in mind, what professional advice will you offer a person or family planning to migrate?
Relocation or “Japa” as popularised in the last 2-3 years in Nigeria is not a bad thing in itself. Migration is as old as mankind. People have always moved in search of opportunities. At a point in the history of the world, it was the Europeans that were leaving Europe to seek opportunities elsewhere. The only difference between present day migration and the old one was there were no passports when the Europeans went all around the world. But now, passports/citizenships have been invented and there is exclusion on the bases of citizenship or passport one holds.
Back to the Japa question, my advice to people who want to relocate is to first and foremost, engage the services of well trusted, well established and highly recommended experts. It may be an individual or a company. By doing this, relocation will be based on strategy and well-informed plan and not just on hearsay. They say knowledge is power. Japa enthusiasts should seek knowledge of experts and not just social media experts who create click-bait contents that are not based on facts but sentiments, just to attract followers. At Solid-Link Consulting, our goal is to make sure we (to the best of our abilities) provide accurate information on destination countries and advice on appropriate routes. In short, we take the stress out of your relocation.
What do you consider most important in the travel abroad business: price, product, or communication?
In my own opinion, I believe the most important is “Truth”. I can link this to communication. It is very important to tell clients the truth about their plans. If. based on knowledge, their choice of destination country would not allow them to thrive in their field, we must not put gain before the lives of our clients. At Solid-Link, one of our core value is Truth. We do not engage in deceitful campaigns because we want to make profit. No, the lives of our clients are more important and remember, the reason we entered into this business is to provide truthful and accurate guidance to our clients.
As an Education Consultant, most people who intend to travel either for vacation, business trip, or for permanent relocation are mostly stressed over some issues, especially the cost of the entire package. What’s your personal definition of outstanding customer service?
My personal definition of outstanding customer service is to be able to meet and go beyond the need of our customers through effective communication. Also, by not just getting them out of Nigeria, but making sure they settle well and progress in their new location. As for price, I think people should think of value when it comes to price. What value would they get for the price quoted?
When an intending traveller failed to secure the needed travel permit or visa, it is usually a devastating news and experience, especially when the person has expended some amount of resources. How do you manage such a situation, and what approach do you deploy to convince the person to either try again or accept his fate?
I want you to know that visa refusal is as devastating to us as it is to the visa applicants. Kindly note, because of the passion for our job, in the course of providing support to a client, we become emotionally invested in the process as well as the outcome of the visa application. Also, our agreed deliverable is usually visa. So, when we are not able to meet this deliverable, we become devastated too.
How do we manage such outcomes? Usually, we assess the situation first. We study the refusal letter to know the reasons for the refusal. If the bases for the refusal are what we can mitigate against if we reapply, then we encourage the customer to reapply. However, if we are not sure we can meet the requirements of the visa, and the initial refusal was based on our inability to deliver our promise of visa, then we advise the client not to reapply until we can meet the requirements, and we refund their deposit to them. However, if the refusal was based on client’s supplying false or inaccurate information, we advise them not to reapply until we can meet the requirement, but we make no refund.
What do you consider the biggest challenge of working as Educational Consultant and Travel Abroad Expert?
Unregulated industry which allows anyone to claim to be a travel consultant and access to the social media by such charlatan to post false information and misleading videos.
What’s your approach for creating customer loyalty to have repeat clients?
Diligently meet the need of our clients during and post visa periods. What I mean is basically, we do not stop working with our clients because they got visas. We keep working with them even when they have received their visa until they settle down in their destination countries. With this commitment from us, our clients reciprocate by giving us their loyalties.
Based on your professional experience, what advice will you give to a Nigerian student looking for admission abroad?
Do not follow multitude, define your goal, look for and engage the service of a truthful agency like Solid-Link, tell them the truth about yourself and follow their instructions.
What type of travel package do you handle the most. vacation, business trip, emigration, study etc?
We handle all types of travel abroad as far as it involves visa. However, I will say what we are best known for currently is study. And this is because we are one of the few agencies that stresses the fact that study offers the most secured and straight forward route to settle and work abroad.
What is your take on Nigeria forex crisis and how it affects your business and foreign students at the moment?
To be honest, the present Forex debacle in Nigeria is horrendous. And it affects people’s decision to study abroad because it has increased the funds involved in the process. However, I believe the present government is working tirelessly to combat the crisis. And I want to believe in no distant time, we would be able to weather the storm of this Forex crisis and people would be able to pursue their relocation plans again.
