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| Patrick Ngowi, CEO, Helvetic Solar |
It’s 1:15 pm on a blistering hot Wednesday afternoon in Dar Es
Salaam. Patrick Ngowi is seated in the lobby of the Hyatt Regency Hotel,
patiently waiting for me to keep up with our lunch appointment. We had
planned to meet for 12:30, but I had lost track of time.
“You are finally here, my brother,” Ngowi smiles as he rises from his chair to welcome me as I approach him.
For a 28 year-old Tanzanian who has built an $8 million (revenues)
solar energy company, Ngowi certainly looks the part. He is impeccably
dressed in a black suit, with the tip of Mont Blanc pen hanging out of
his suit pocket. And he’s got a Mont Blanc watch adorning his left wrist
and Brioni shoes to match.
Ngowi has a remarkable story. He is the CEO of Helvetic Solar Contractors
– a Tanzanian company that supplies, installs and maintains solar
systems throughout the northern circuit of Tanzania. The company sells
everything solar from photovoltaic (a.k.a. “solar”) panels and water
heaters to battery banks, generators and back-up units.
But what’s even more interesting is the fact that Ngowi has had success
at such a young age. Ngowi got his first taste of business at 15 when as
a high school student he started selling top-up vouchers. Mobile phone
companies like Vodacom, Tigo and other had only just established
operations in the country and the only place to find recharge vouchers
were in the shopping malls and exclusive phone shops. There were very
few distributors or super dealers in Arusha, a mid-sized commercial city
that serves as the gateway to the northern circuit where Ngowi lives.
Ngowi noticed that most people in his neighborhood who wanted to top-up
their phones had to travel significant distances to buy airtime.
Spotting opportunity, Ngowi raised Tsh 50,000 (about $50) from his
mother and bought top-up vouchers from the big dealers. Since he was
still in high school and couldn’t devote much time to the business, he
mobilized fuel station pump attendants in the local community to sell
the vouchers. He made a small margin on each sale and kept at it for the
next two years.
“It was a business on the side, nothing serious,” he says in
retrospect, “but I loved the fact that I was making money and I was
becoming a bit independent. The very foundation of the little success
I’ve achieved was formed during those years. I learned about profit and
loss, about margins, about marketing and hiring the right people– I
learned so many things at that stage.”
When he finished high school, Ngowi took a gap year before going to
the university. The mobile phone revolution was in its infant stages,
and phones were still relatively expensive. Young Tanzanians like
himself wanted to own a phone but couldn’t afford the exorbitant price
tag on the locally available ones. It was during this period that he
made a leisure trip to Asia and discovered trendy yet inexpensive
phones. Spotting yet another opportunity, he took an $1,800 loan from
his mother and started making regular trips between Tanzania and Hong
Kong, buying mobile phones and accessories from low-cost manufacturers
and selling them to the Tanzania’s gadget enthusiasts.
“Before long, we were making a lot of money. I was only 18 and a half
years old at the time but I was doing an annual turnover of $150,000.
Life was good.”
It was during his frequent trips to Hong Kong and China that he
discovered solar panels and learned about renewable energy for the first
time.
Tanzania has critical energy infrastructural challenges. At the time
of Ngowi’s frequent Asian trips, the national power grid coverage in
Tanzania was only about 10%. Most companies, government agencies and
wealthy families depended heavily on generators.
“The electrification issue was a major one and I just figured out
that Tanzanians might be receptive to an alternative energy source,”
Ngowi says as he sips his drink.
There was opportunity, and Ngowi wanted to delve right in, but his
parents insisted that he completed his education. Ngowi comes from a
family of academics. Both his parents are lecturers, and their orders
were crystal clear.
“Right from the time I started the Recharge voucher business, my
mother told me that I had to complete my education. Dropping out of
school was not an option, and she made it clear from the beginning,”
Ngowi says.
At 19, Ngowi had to abandon his business and carry on with his
studies. He had already become fascinated with China and solar energy.
With some of the money he had accumulated from his business, he enrolled
at the Denzhou University in China where he studied renewable energy.
It was a perfect marriage. He was already in love with China, and
curious about renewable energy and the prospects it offered in his
native home.
While at Denzhou, Ngowi started an informal exporting business. He had
previously built relationships with a few friends in the construction
industry so he had a lot of orders from them...
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