I was recently recognised by The Guardian Nigeria as one of the 100 Top Strategic CEOs of Nigeria's Most Transformative Companies in 2025. You can read the full feature here.
I want to be honest about what this means to me and what it does not.
It does not mean we have arrived. Shelze Professional Services is fifteen years old. We have done meaningful work across tax, assurance, advisory, and institutional reform. We have helped governments collect revenue they did not know they were owed. We have served clients from TikTok to the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria. I am proud of all of that.
But the work I think about most is the work that has not happened yet.
We are building toward something that does not yet exist in Nigeria at scale: an accounting and finance BPO operation that can compete globally, powered by Nigerian talent and augmented by technology. If we get it right, the implications go well beyond Shelze. If we do not, at least we would have tried something worth trying.
What this recognition does mean is that the journey so far has not gone unnoticed. And I want to acknowledge the people responsible for that.
My father, Nelson Apaflo, whose values I carry into every room I enter. My mother, whose belief in me has never wavered. Mentors like Yemi Sanni, Dele Ogunlowo, Abiodun Sanusi, and Ola Olabinjo, who gave me their time when I had nothing to offer in return. And the team at Shelze, past and present, who chose to build something with me.
I registered Shelze in 2011 as a part-time operation while working in investment banking. I went full-time in 2013 with a small client base and a conviction that a Nigerian firm could deliver at the highest standard. That conviction has not changed. The scale of the ambition has.
God is the source. Every other person is a resource. That has been true from the beginning. It remains true now.
David Apaflo
Practitioner. Thinker. African.