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.

Career

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

mobile phones A mobile phone, cellular phone, cell phone, cellphone, handphone, hand phone or pocket phone, sometimes shortened to simply mobile, cell, or just phone, is a portable telephone that can make and receive calls over a radio frequency link whil ...

in high school. After graduating, Ngowi travelled between China and Tanzania 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. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

, studying

renewable energy Renewable energy is energy that is collected from renewable resources that are naturally replenished on a human timescale. It includes sources such as sunlight, wind, the movement of water, and geothermal heat. Although most renewable energy ...

. Patrick Ngowi founded Helvetic Solar in 2007 to provide and install solar equipment in Tanzania and the United States. 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 owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also re ...

'' 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 (formerly Consumer News and Business Channel) is an American basic cable business news channel. It provides business news programming on weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., Eastern Time, while broadcasting talk sho ...

. 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 an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...

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 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) or Global Goals are a collection of 17 interlinked objectives designed to serve as a "shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future".United Nations (2017) R ...

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

Philanthropy

Ngowi is the founder of the Light for Life Foundation, a non-profit social enterprise of which focuses on providing 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 Tanzanian businesspeople 1985 births People from Kilimanjaro Region