Shirley is a Senior Consulting Associate at BFA Global. She specializes in portfolio design, programme delivery, and market systems development across Africa. She works with development funders, policymakers, and ecosystem actors to design and manage large-scale initiatives that expand economic opportunity, strengthen financial inclusion, and accelerate entrepreneurship and climate resilience. Shirley currently leads the Livelihood Impact Fund (LIF) Entrepreneurship Initiative, a pan-African programme designed to accelerate proven SME growth models and support the creation of 200,000 formal jobs over five years. In this role, she oversees the initiative's assessment and portfolio design process, combining evidence review, landscape analysis, and stakeholder engagement to identify scalable pathways for SME growth.
Over more than 12 years working across Africa and Asia, Shirley has led multi-country advisory engagements and ecosystem-building initiatives focused on financial inclusion, entrepreneurship, livelihoods, and climate resilience. She has advised organizations including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Mastercard Foundation, CGAP, the Financial Sector Deepening Network, JPMorgan Chase, and financial sector regulators across Africa. Her work has contributed to national financial sector strategies, entrepreneurship ecosystem development, inclusive finance initiatives, and climate resilience programmes. Previously, Shirley served as Interim Director, Advisory, Africa at BFA Global and co-founded TECA Africa, a climate resilience venture acceleration platform operating across Africa and Latin America.
Her areas of expertise include entrepreneurship ecosystem development, financial inclusion, climate resilience, market systems development, blended finance, programme governance, and adaptive portfolio management. Shirley holds a Master of Commerce in Development Finance, a Postgraduate Diploma in Financial Analysis and Portfolio Management, and a Bachelor of Commerce in Financial Accounting from the University of Cape Town.
