According to Mr. Bismarck Rewane, the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of the Financial Derivatives Company Ltd (FDC), the failure of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and Signature Bank in the United States may limit funding for fintech businesses in Nigeria.
Additionally, he stated that the Nigerian economy was affected by the receding naira crunch in the first quarter of 2023, which led to winners in the banking and telecommunications industries and losers in the industrial, brewery, and Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) industries.
According to Rewane, “Nigeria’s fintech space is expected to come under pressure” as a result of SVB’s failure and the Signature Bank crisis, funding for fintech businesses would be constrained.
He named businesspeople in the brewery, FMCG, and manufacturing sectors sectors as the losers of the induced cash crunch on the economy due to decline in consumers’ aggregate demand.
The chief executive of the FDC, however, noted that the naira was overvalued by 51.88 per cent at the current Investors and Exporters’ (I&E) forex rate of N462 per dollar against the parallel market rate of N750 per dollar.