What is ajo in English? What does esusu mean?

What does ajo mean in English?

Ajo is a Yoruba word. PiggyVest translates it as group or organisational savings. In practice it means a contribution, where people you know pay in regularly and take turns to collect the money.

There’s no single English word for it. Nigerians usually say contribution or thrift, and owo ajo is the money itself. The formal name is a rotating savings and credit association, or ROSCA.

What does esusu mean?

Esusu is also a Yoruba name for this kind of group. In 1952 the anthropologist William Bascom described the esusu as a Yoruba credit institution that resembles a credit union, an insurance scheme and a savings club, while being distinct from all three.

What is the difference between ajo and esusu?

Most people use the words for the same thing. You’ll see writers draw a line between them, but they don’t agree on where it falls, so ask your group what it means by the word.

You’ll also see isusu and osusu, which are close to esusu in sound and meaning. In Ghana and the Caribbean it’s a susu or sou-sou, and in the UK, Caribbean communities call it a pardner. Our list of savings circle names around the world has more.

What is adashe?

Adashe, or adashi, is the Hausa name, used across northern Nigeria. It works like ajo. A university lecturer in Lincoln told Hyphen that members pay a monthly amount to a collector called the uwar adashi, who gives the lump sum to one member each month. She described the uwar adashi as the centre of the group, someone who vouches for every member.

How ajo works

1. The group agrees the amount and how often everyone pays.
2. They settle the order of collection, either by agreement or at random.
3. Everyone pays in each round.
4. One person collects the whole amount.
5. It carries on until everyone has collected, and many groups then start again.

Nobody earns interest and nobody pays it. Collecting early is like an interest-free loan from the group, and collecting late is a way of saving. It suits rent, school fees or stock for a business, when you need a lump sum on a particular date.

Groups vary a lot. PiggyVest says an ajo can have anywhere from 3 to 100 people and can run daily, weekly or monthly. It also says a traditional ajo may never end, and a member who leaves can pass their place to someone new.

What the words mean

Coordinator

The person who runs the group, collects the money and pays it out. Everyone has to trust this person, since they can hold the money for a while.

Contribution

The amount each person pays in a round. People also use the word for the whole group, as in “I’m in a contribution with my colleagues”.

Thrift

Another common word for ajo in Nigeria.

Is ajo safe?

That depends on the people in it. An ajo runs on trust, and PiggyVest describes it as an informal arrangement. If it goes wrong, the group has to sort it out among themselves, or a member has to go to court.

There are two usual ways it fails:

• Someone collects early, then stops paying, and the people still waiting lose out.
• The coordinator loses track of the money, or disappears with it.

Groups do collapse. A study of savings circles in urban Benin found that over two years about one in three groups had enforcement problems, and two thirds of those collapsed. That’s one city in the Republic of Benin, so it can’t tell you how often Nigerian groups fail.

If you want to run one with fewer surprises, read how to start an ajo contribution.

This guide is general information and isn’t legal or financial advice.

Where CircleSave fits

CircleSave keeps the record for your ajo. Everyone can see who has paid and whose turn is next, and members get reminders on WhatsApp. We never hold the money, because members pay whoever’s turn it is directly. We can’t promise everyone will pay. A circle can have up to 10 people.