We caught up with the brilliant and insightful STEVEN NGOWI a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, STEVEN thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. So, let’s start with a hypothetical – what would you change about the educational system?
Our education system is different from all the countries in Eastern Africa, it is something we all wish to change. kids when they start school all the subjects are in Swahili not unless you’re in an international school where the fees are something you can work for years to be able to pay for just 1 year. Swahili is our national language, and we are proud of that but where the world is going right now English is the key to access most of the jobs. now a child will start with Swahili in primary school for 7 years then join high school. In high school everything is in English and after 2 years you have to sit on a national exam so that you will have an index number to sit for your final exam after another 2 years. remember all these subjects are in English a language that you’ve only studied as a subject in primary and nothing more. if all the subjects were in English it would have been easier. We as Tanzanians are scared of competition because our Neighbours are well educated that most of us so even allowing them to come to our country and work it is a big issue.
STEVEN, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I am Steven Ngowi jr, 31yrs of age. Born on the slopes of the highest mountain in Africa and the only free standing in the world, Kilimanjaro is where all this begun. I work on the tourism industry here in Tanzania, it all started with my grandfather doing the same thing even before my mother was born. He had dreams of starting a safari company but due to circumstances that he could not avoid then it wasn’t easy anymore, so i decide to start Ndifo Safari a tour company in Tanzania that i am the majority shareholder as a local Tanzanian. Most of the tour companies here are owned by people from outside the country. I think it’s time for us as local Tanzanians to rise and make a difference instead of slowing our role.
What i am most proud of is that we as ndifo we have goals of empowering our own with good fair wage, pay people what they really deserve instead of using lots of good man power then at the end of the day they can’t even buy their kids a pair of shoes to go to school, if we all rise then that would be great but how can we while the people who we work for or used to work for can’t pay us well while they are making billions of dollars and putting their money into international accounts so that the government can’t trace it? for how long are they going to milk us? they call our country a country of milk and honey while we are watching them drink the milk and honey enjoying it. we hope it would change at some point. we want to see the stars traveling to Tanzania and support local business as we believe nothing can beat the local knowledge. We provide the real authentic experience,
Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?
I met my business partner on safari where every country in the world was closed and Tanzania was open to tourist still, Tanzania welcomes you was the advert. she saw how we were working, and she wanted to know the story behind. she shared it with her husband and after that Ndifo was up and we’ve just purchased another new vehicle which means we are growing. If it wasn’t for them, it would have been just a dream still.
My friend Derek has been very supportive to me and my business, we will be doing an epic safari this. coming February.
Can you open up about how you funded your business?
Capital is something hard to get especially to start a business in tourism, the only way is to have investors and it’s want has helped ndifo get here.
Contact Info:
- Website: Ndifosafari.com
- Instagram: Ndifo Safari
- Facebook: Ndifo Safari
Image Credits
Derek Nielsen & Steven Ngowi