The Patrick Ngowi Effect: Seizing Business Opportunities

Published on 27th August 2013

Mr. Patrick Ngowi is a 28 year old Tanzanian Businessman who is the founder of Helvetic Solar Contractors, a solar energy company that supplies, installs and maintains solar systems in Tanzania. Ngowi was recently featured in the Forbes Magazine among the top 30 under 30 Businessmen to watch this year. His company garners $ 8 million in annual Revenue.

At the age of just 16, when airtime vouchers were only sold at official outlets of the Telecommunications companies, he saw an opportunity. Getting $50 from his mother, he bought airtime and sold it to residents in his hometown of Arusha for a small profit. At the age of 19, he took a $1,500 loan from his mother, this time to purchase cheap mobile phones from Hong Kong, and sold them back home at a cheaper price. That is when he discovered solar panels and learned about renewable Energy (Solar Power) and with plenteous sunshine all year round in Tanzania, it seemed no brainer to him.

Although this article hinges on Patrick Ngowi and his rise to the helm among Tanzania’s business elite, my focus is more on what today’s aspiring entrepreneurs can learn from him as far as seizing opportunities and the prospects of small businesses are concerned. 

Tanzania, with an annual GDP of $24 Billion is ranked by Forbes as the 107th best country to conduct business. Its large under-developed formal sector enables entrepreneurs and small businesses to pursue new opportunities without being blocked by large established firms. Entrepreneurship is not only about Individuals starting their own businesses but setting their own goals in life and figuring out the means to achieve them. It’s about the initiative and proactive attitude to solving problems that matter to people.

The Dar-es-Salaam International Trade Fair (DITF) is a means through which entrepreneurs could build up a strong approach towards winning better business operations inside the country. At the recent (DITF), the Minister for Industry and Trade, Dr. Abdallah Kigoda, said that the Fair was an adequate platform to make local entrepreneurs learn how developed countries were doing business.

A study commissioned by the Global Village Energy Partnership (GVEP) in the lake regions of Tanzania on the 14th of August 2013 showed that 64% of men and 50% of women over the age of 15 owned a mobile phone and as most of them had no fixed power supply, the demand for a mobile phone charging business looks promising. It established that phone users in the region travel between 4.1 to 18 kilometers just to charge their phone.

Inter-firm linkages between small and large firms or domestic and international enterprises in value chains contribute to small firms’ growth and success. This type of co-operation allows small firms to reap the benefits of scale and scope economies. Large foreign companies are often reluctant to establish local linkages with small enterprises because of product quality concerns. Although this may be a problem for small business development, the situation is beginning to change as government that creates an enabling investment environment like tax incentives, red tape reduction, and property protection; among others.

According to a forum paper written by Rashid M. Mfaume and Wihelm Leonard in 2004 on small business entrepreneurship in Tanzania and the prospect for future development, almost  40% of the people who engage in small business do so for lack of adequate education and difficulty in finding formal employment. The challenges facing entrepreneurs and small firms in Tanzania are many and varied. They include lack of financial support, weak economic infrastructure and lack of policy coherence for small business, among others. Education and training support for entrepreneurs and small scale enterprises remains important towards establishing a good foundation for small business growth.

Remember that Patrick Ngowi, using some of the money he had accumulated from his business, enrolled at the Denzhou University in China where he studied renewable energy prior to supplying solar panels to Tanzania and setting up Helvetic Solar Contractors. Despite the fact that many people may not get such an opportunity to study abroad, local tertiary and higher education institutions can help provide skills, information and knowledge required to help entrepreneurs succeed in today’s business world.

By Kirenzi Emmanuel.

The author studies  Business Marketing at the Kampala International University in Dar es Salaam.


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