Patrick Epaphra Ngowi is a Tanzanian entrepreneur, businessperson, environmentalist, Al Gore's climate change reality leader and United Nation's SDG 7 Pioneer. Patrick has founded and led several businesses over the course of his career.

Early life and education

Ngowi started his first business at age 15 when he started selling top-up vouchers for

mobile phone A mobile phone or cell phone is a portable telephone that allows users to make and receive calls over a radio frequency link while moving within a designated telephone service area, unlike fixed-location phones ( landline phones). This rad ...

s in high school. After graduating, Ngowi travelled between China and

Tanzania Tanzania, officially the United Republic of Tanzania, is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It is bordered by Uganda to the northwest; Kenya to the northeast; the Indian Ocean to the east; Mozambique and Malawi to t ...

and brought back trendy and cheap phones, and began buying inexpensive phones from low-cost manufacturers and selling them in the Tanzanian market. He enrolled at Denzhou University in

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

, studying

renewable energy Renewable energy (also called green energy) is energy made from renewable resource, renewable natural resources that are replenished on a human lifetime, human timescale. The most widely used renewable energy types are solar energy, wind pow ...

. Patrick Ngowi founded Helvetic Solar in 2007 to provide and install solar equipment in Tanzania. The company was awarded KPMG's No. 1 of the Top 100 Mid Sized Companies in Tanzania Award in 2012. The firm has since evolved into a diversified business group, of which he Chairs.

Recognition

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The co ...

'' included Ngowi in its list of 30 under 30 Africa's Best Young Entrepreneurs and Forbes list of Young African Millionaires to Watch in 2013. He was again listed in the 2014 list of Africa's Most Promising Young Entrepreneurs through Helvetic Group. He was also named as East Africa's Young Business Leader of the Year 2014 by Forbes and

CNBC CNBC is an American List of business news channels, business news channel owned by the NBCUniversal News Group, a unit of Comcast's NBCUniversal. The network broadcasts live business news and analysis programming during the morning, Day ...

. Ngowi has had multiple speaking roles at international events and in 2015 was elected as Chairman of the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...

Global Compact in Tanzania. A year later, it was announced by the United Nations Secretary General that Ngowi was one of the United Nation's

Sustainable Development Goals The ''2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development'', adopted by all United Nations (UN) members in 2015, created 17 world Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The aim of these global goals is "peace and prosperity for people and the planet" – wh ...

(SGDs) Global 10 Pioneers, being a pioneer in providing access to clean energy, SDG 7.

Philanthropy

Ngowi has been provided free

solar Solar may refer to: Astronomy * Of or relating to the Sun ** Solar telescope, a special purpose telescope used to observe the Sun ** A device that utilizes solar energy (e.g. "solar panels") ** Solar calendar, a calendar whose dates indicate t ...

and small wind power systems for youth and women in rural and off-grid parts of Tanzania.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ngowi, Patrick E Living people 21st-century Tanzanian businesspeople 1985 births People from Kilimanjaro Region