Growing up, this is the question I asked my mother whenever she had me go down our five-floor walk-up to collect wads of cash from family members in the most inconspicuous way possible.
Of course, 9-year-old Hawa would proceed to bounce up each step using the cash to fan herself and flex to her imaginary audience, but I digress.
My mother has led her Susu for over 20 years now. I remember being completely confused by the purpose of a Susu. I couldn't understand why people pooled their money together, nor could I understand how my mom and aunt kept track of everyone and all of the amounts with their impressive mental math skills.
Today, as I am faced with the adult reality of money management, I have taken it upon myself to truly understand what this Susu thing is and why it is an excellent way to save money.
For anyone who is unfamiliar, SuSu (AKA "sou-sou" or "asue") is a community-style method of saving. You team up with a group of people you trust and everyone pools in money in order to reach personal savings goals.
Susu originates from Africa. It is also practiced in the Caribbean and even in certain Asian cultures. It promotes wealth building in a community that can baffle those of us who grew up in Western society.
Not to mention it has fewer restrictions than traditional financial organizations. As a result, Susu has historically been used by unbanked people or people who have fallen prey to creditors who have access to their bank information.
Let me break down how a Susu would work with an example:
Say there is a Susu that consists of what is called fifty "hands", where each hand is worth $100 a week. We count the number of hands and not the number of people because there could be forty people who make up the fifty hands. This is because one person could be contributing two or more hands, or in this case $200+ on a weekly basis.
The total pot value each week for this Susu is 50 hands x $100 = $5,000.
Therefore, every week, one person collects $5,000 or more depending on the number of hands entered into the Susu.
Let's say Aisha enters the Susu with one hand and knows that she will need to take the $5,000 soon to pay for school fees. As a result, she asks the Susu organizer to be bumped up to the front of the list in order to get the first dibs on the Susu.
Whereas Mamasah, who enters the Susu with two hands, knows that she will not be needing her $10,000 anytime soon and is ok with a longer time horizon of not accessing her money. Therefore, she asks to be one of the last people to collect the Susu.
As a result, with the Susu, people can either access the money they don't have now and avoid taking out conventional loans or have long-term savings similar to having money in conventional savings accounts.
This ultimately means no Riba (interest), which is always a good thing!
Susu is a safe and encouraging way to save and borrow money since you are part of a community of people with their own savings goals. This results in a level of accountability to save that isn't always seen when you have to save on your own.
The biggest caveat I can think of is that you truly need to trust the people who are in your Susu. Without trust, this entire community-style money management strategy falls flat on its face.
The saving grace is that our parents have been doing this for years and I assume that their parents before them also took part in the Susu method. It is an age old community practice that I would hate to see not continued in our generation and generations to come.
So what is my key takeaway? Join a Susu! (If that's what you want to do of course :P)
Perhaps start one among your friends or even ask your parents/elders if they are part of a Susu group and if you could join. It's worth a try and you get to save in the process. I think that's a definite win!
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