How an ajo works, and how to keep a clean record of yours
An ajo (Yoruba: àjọ) is a rotating savings group common in Nigeria, especially in Lagos and the South-West, and among Yoruba communities in neighbouring Benin. It is also called esusu (èsúsú), and in everyday Nigerian English simply a contribution or a thrift contribution. A group of people agree to pay the same amount every day, week or month into one pot, and each time one member collects the whole pot. It goes round until every member has collected once.
Nobody earns interest and nobody pays any. A member who collects early gets a lump sum up front and pays it back through their contributions; a member who collects late has saved with the discipline of the group. People use their ajo for rent, school fees, stock for a shop, a wedding or a new business.
How does an ajo work?
- An organizer brings together people who know and trust each other: traders in the same market, co-workers, church or mosque members, or neighbours.
- The group agrees the amount, how often everyone pays (daily, weekly or monthly), how many members there are and the rules for late payment.
- The group settles the collection order: who collects first, who collects next and so on.
- On each collection day every member pays, in cash, by bank transfer or from a mobile wallet, and the organizer hands the whole pot to that day’s member.
- The ajo ends when every member has collected once. Many groups then start a new round with the same people.
Is an ajo the same as an alajo?
No, and the difference matters. An alajo (alájọ) is a thrift collector: one person who goes round collecting small contributions, often every day, from traders and other clients, keeps the money and returns each person’s savings later. The clients don’t pay each other. They each save with the collector and rely on that one person to hand the money back.
A rotating ajo or esusu group works the other way round. Members pay into a shared pot and the whole pot goes to one member each time, so the money moves between the members, and the organizer only holds it for as long as it takes to pass it on. This guide is about the rotating group.
Savings Circle is not an alajo and not a collector. It never collects, holds or transfers anyone’s money. It is the record book for the organizer of a rotating group: who has paid, who is owing and who collects next.
How is the collection order decided?
Groups do it in different ways. Many ballot the order at the first meeting, so nobody can say it was fixed. Some let a member with an urgent need, such as rent that is due or school fees, collect first. Others go by who joined first, or give an early turn to the organizer for the work of running the group.
Any of these can be fair. What causes trouble is an order that was never written down, or one that seems to change when it suits someone. Agree the method before the first payment, write the order down where every member can see it, and record any swap two members agree to.
Many groups also put their rules in writing before they start: the amount, the day, what happens when someone pays late, and what happens if a member wants to leave. Searching for “ajo rules and regulations” shows how many organizers look for exactly that.
What goes wrong in an ajo?
- A collector or organizer disappears with the money. This is the fear behind every ajo, and it is why people only join groups run by someone they know. It is also why a record that every member can check matters.
- A member collects early, then stops paying. The members still waiting for their turn carry the loss.
- Late payments. When one member is late, the member due to collect gets less than they were counting on, and the organizer is left chasing people one by one.
- Arguments over who paid. A contribution card, an exercise book or a long WhatsApp chat is hard to check months later. It turns into “he said, she said”.
- Arguments over the order. If the order was agreed by word of mouth, members remember it differently.
- Lost records. A notebook gets wet or goes missing, a phone is changed, and the only full record of the group goes with it.
How do you run an ajo with Savings Circle?
- Create the group. Give it the name your members know, such as “Shop owners’ ajo”, and choose a name type: Savings circle, or another word from the list. Set the currency to naira (₦), what each person pays per round and the schedule: daily, weekly or monthly.
- Add members from your contacts. They don’t install anything.
- Set the collection order. Ballot the order at random in front of everyone, or enter the order you agreed. A random ballot saves its seed, so anyone can check later that it wasn’t changed. Members can ask to swap turns, and the swap is recorded too.
- Record payments as they come in: cash, bank transfer or a mobile wallet such as OPay or PalmPay, with a screenshot as proof if you like. It works offline, even with no data, and syncs when you’re back online.
- Remind the late ones. One tap opens WhatsApp, SMS or Telegram with a polite message in their language.
- Record each payout. Every entry is dated. A correction is added as a new entry, and the original stays in the history.
- Share the record. Send a member a receipt or a statement of what they have paid. On a computer, open the same groups in the web app.
Savings Circle never holds or moves money. Members pay each other the way they already do; the app is the shared record of who paid, who is next and what is owed.
Other names for the same idea
In Yoruba it is àjọ or èsúsú, in Hausa it is adashe or adashi, and in Igbo it is isusu. In Sierra Leone and The Gambia it is osusu, and in Ghana it is a susu. Further afield the same system is a committee in Pakistan and India, a tanda in Mexico, a chama in Kenya, an arisan in Indonesia and a paluwagan in the Philippines. Economists call all of these rotating savings and credit associations, or ROSCAs. Savings Circle works for any of them.
Guides
- South Asia: committee, kameti, chit fund, bhishi, kitty party and samity
- Africa: susu, chama, ajo, adashe, equb, hagbad, stokvel, tontine, mukando and chilimba
- The Americas and the Caribbean: sou-sou, tanda, junta, lending circle and pardner
- Asia and the Pacific: arisan, paluwagan and hụi
- The Arab world: jam’iya