What is ayuuto or hagbad?
By Reuben Odunze. Updated . 3 min read.
Ayuuto, also called hagbad, is a Somali savings circle. Members pay a fixed amount into a shared pot on a set schedule, and each time one member collects the whole pot until everyone has had a turn. Nobody pays interest. Al Jazeera reports that the word means help, from the Italian aiuto.
What does ayuuto mean?
According to Al Jazeera, ayuuto is Somali for help and comes from the Italian word aiuto. Hagbad is another name for the same thing. Al Jazeera describes it as an interest-free rotating savings scheme based on mutual trust.
How ayuuto works
- A group, often women who live near each other, agrees a fixed amount that everyone can afford.
- Everyone pays it into the pot at each meeting.
- The keeper of the pot hands the whole amount to one member.
- Each collection goes to someone new until every member has had one.
Al Jazeera visited a group of ten women in a camp in Mogadishu. They meet once a month and each brings $10, so whoever’s turn it is goes home with $100. The members spend it on extra food, or on starting a small business selling milk or firewood.
What the words mean
- Ayuuto or hagbad
- The savings circle itself.
- Keeper of the pot
- The leader who collects the money, hands out each pot and looks after membership. In the Mogadishu group, the keeper’s son writes down the records for her.
Ayuuto in the UK and abroad
Al Jazeera reports that ayuuto runs on a large scale outside Somalia, with family and friends pooling thousands of dollars a year. During the pandemic, members abroad who lost their jobs used their ayuuto savings to keep sending money to relatives back home.
In Leicester, a woman told Hyphen about the group she pays into, which is mostly older Somali women. Eighteen members each pay £500 a month for 18 months, and each month one of them receives £9,000. She calls it ajo, from her own Nigerian heritage. The order is fixed in advance, so she could plan her payout around university fees. The group only deals in cash, because members worry their bank will ask about large transfers.
Is ayuuto the same as ajo or a pardner?
Yes, it’s the same idea. Nigerians call it ajo or esusu, Caribbean families call it a pardner or a susu, and South Asian families call it a kameti. Our list of savings circle names around the world has more.
What can go wrong
Amina Haji Elmi of Save Somali Women and Children told Al Jazeera that there’s no binding contract, and that the keeper could disappear or die with the money. Two more are worth knowing:
- Someone collects early, then stops paying, and the people still waiting lose out.
- Cash leaves no record, which makes a dispute hard to settle.
Nothing protects the money from outside. In the UK, MoneyHelper lists these schemes as unregulated, and a spokesperson for the Financial Services Compensation Scheme told Hyphen that rotating savings groups aren’t eligible for its protection. If a member stops paying, read what to do when someone stops paying.
This guide is general information and isn’t legal or financial advice.
Plan your ayuuto
Our free rota and pot calculator works out the pot, picks a fair order and lists every date, so the whole group sees the same plan.
Where CircleSave fits
CircleSave keeps the record for your ayuuto. 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.