Syra Finance Announces Closure Due to Hostile Business Environment.

Syra Finance.

After more than a year of operation in Nigeria, Syra Finance, a leading Nigerian startup in the cross-border payment sector, regretfully announced its closure following the recent introduction of hostile government policies towards blockchain crackdown in Nigeria.

Driven to create a cheaper FX exchange for Nigeria’s burgeoning young freelance and remote workers, Muhammed joined forces with his co-founder Tolu (who is an engineer in Luxembourg). Their shared experiences of paying exorbitant fees when exchanging or making currency transfers made them decide to build Syra Finance.

In October 2022, they launched Syra Finance, a cross-border payment solution for young Africans.

Syra Finance offered a two-pronged approach. First, it prioritized users’ ability to open a foreign account where they can get paid and keep their money. Create a USD card for them to spend and make purchases whenever they like. Second, Syra Finance leveraging blockchain technology enables its users to transfer money in their account at a relatively low cost to any supported currency on the platform.

Syra Finance Co-founder, Muhammed Mustapha.

Since its launch, Syra Finance got accepted in 2023 into the Blockchain Founders Group accelerator and raised $120,000 pre-seed, had over 20,000 waitlist sign-ups, and more than 5000 active early users, according to Syra Finance former CEO Muhammed Mustapha in an interview with Techmoonshot.com. Plans were underway to expand beyond Nigeria. “We achieved these results with a very lean marketing budget,” he said.

However, in a surprising turn of events, Syra Finance co-founders decided to shut down the business in June 2024, the website and mobile applications are currently inactive.

Statement from the CEO

“We are deeply saddened to announce the shutdown of Syra Finance,” said Muhammed Mustapha, CEO of Syra Finance. “Our team has worked tirelessly to build a platform that empowers Nigerian remote workers and freelancers through financial innovation. However, the current regulatory environment leaves us with no viable path forward”.

This move isn’t the end of the road for Syra Finance. Muhammed revealed that they are maintaining communication with their investors, suggesting a potential future relaunch outside of Nigeria, which he said will be in “a few months”.

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