Nigeria · ajo
Chidi runs an ajo at the market
Twelve traders, ₦20,000 a week, Onitsha.
Twelve traders on the same row pay ₦20,000 every Saturday. Each week one of them collects ₦240,000 and buys stock. Chidi keeps the book and collects the cash.
Most weeks go fine. The trouble is memory: who paid two Saturdays ago, who paid double to cover a missed week, who was given a week off. A disagreement about one week can sour the whole row.
Chidi also wants the people with the early slots to be people who will stay. One trader collected in week two, then moved to another market.
What worries them
Cash counted by hand, and a book only I can read.
Arguments about which week was paid, with nothing to show.
Someone collecting early and leaving the row.
What Rotaro changes
- A record every trader can readEach member marks their payment and the recipient confirms. The record says who paid which week, and who confirmed it, for everyone to see.
- Disputes with evidenceA disagreement is raised from the payment itself, with a photo of the transfer or the receipt. Chidi records the outcome, and both sides see it.
- Rules the row agreedHow many days late counts as missed, and what happens after repeated misses, are part of the group's rules. Everyone accepts them on joining, and the app applies them the same way to everyone.
- Guarantors for the early slotsThe group can ask that the first slots name a guarantor, another trader who stands behind them.
- Automatic payments, laterIn Nigeria, each member will get their own account number for the group from a licensed partner, and a transfer into it will count as their contribution by itself. That comes when the partner is live; the record works by hand from day one.
Their first steps
Start a group: ₦20,000, weekly, twelve rounds, guarantors for the first three slots.
Share the group code on the row's WhatsApp. Approve each request.
Let members choose their own slots, and start on Saturday.