A Weird Saving Method

There's a weird money-saving system that is being used here in my country, only I still can't wrap my head around it every time I think about it because it feels ridiculous.

The name of this system is called AJO, or at least that is what it is called in the part of Lagos where I grew up. And how this works is that a group of people comes together and agrees to each day give someone money to hold for them, and then whenever they want their money back, they ask that person for it and collect it.

_{photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya}

I apologize if my explanation sounds vague, but like I said, my understanding about this system saving still isn't up to par yet. But basically, this person who goes around to collect money from everyone else acts like a bank, but the difference between them and a bank is that they literally could disappear with your money, or they could die and your money dies with them.

And I say that because my reason for making this post is as a result of something that happened recently. One of the ladies who runs this AJO method of savings had recently passed away, and when her husband was approached by everyone who had their money saved with his now late wife, he denied having any knowledge of the money and claimed to not know where it is.

So basically he's telling them that their money died with his wife and they weren't getting a penny off him, because he wasn't the one they had an agreement with. And that to me makes perfect sense because why, in the first place, would anyone agree to give anyone their money for safekeeping.

What happened to saving your money in the bank? Or better still, why not keep it yourself? Why entrust such a responsibility to an individual who has no insurance whatsoever to help you recover your money if anything should happen to it or to the person in charge of it.

It's as if these people want to get scammed, and when they do, they come running around, crying about it.