Susu, Ajo, Esusu, Partner Hand: One Idea, Many Names
Susu, esusu, ajo, adashi, partner hand, pardna, box hand, tontine, tanda, hui, chit fund. Communities on every continent invented the same savings circle independently, and each gave it a different name.
The common thread
Every term on this page describes the same mechanism: a fixed group, a fixed contribution, a fixed schedule, and one member taking the whole pot each round until everyone has had a turn. Economists call the category a ROSCA — Rotating Savings and Credit Association — but almost nobody who actually runs one uses that phrase.
Where the traditions genuinely differ is in how the order is set. Most West African and Caribbean circles use a fixed or drawn order, so no interest changes hands. Chit funds and many hui run an auction, where members bid down their payout to be paid early — which does make them a form of credit. That distinction matters more than any difference in vocabulary. If you are joining a circle that involves bidding, you are borrowing.
For the mechanics in detail, see what a susu is and how it works.
West and East Africa
Susu / Sou-sou
Ghana, and across the Caribbean
The Akan word is the one that travelled furthest. In Ghana a "susu collector" may also mean a person who visits daily to take a small deposit — a related but different arrangement, closer to doorstep saving than to a rotating pot.
Esusu / Osusu
Yoruba, Nigeria and Sierra Leone
Widely treated as the root the Caribbean "sou-sou" descends from, carried across the Atlantic and kept alive in Trinidad, Jamaica and Guyana.
Ajo
Yoruba, Nigeria
Used slightly more often for the daily or weekly contribution habit, where esusu leans towards the formal rotating group. In practice Nigerians use both, and often interchangeably.
Adashi
Hausa, northern Nigeria and Niger
The same rotating structure, typically organised through workplace, market or neighbourhood ties.
Tontine
Senegal, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire and francophone West Africa
Confusingly, "tontine" in European financial history means something else entirely — a survivorship annuity. In West Africa it simply means a savings circle.
Chama
Kenya and East Africa
Often larger and more formal than a susu, and frequently used for group investment as well as rotating payouts.
Stokvel
South Africa
A broad term covering rotating savings, burial societies and grocery clubs. Some stokvels save towards a single annual payout rather than rotating monthly.
The Caribbean
Partner / Partner hand
Jamaica, and Jamaican communities in the UK
The organiser is the "banker", each share is a "hand", and the payout is a "draw". A member can hold more than one hand to receive a larger sum.
Pardna
Jamaica
The same institution as partner, spelled as it is spoken. Common in UK Caribbean communities, where it long predated any app.
Box hand
Guyana
Same mechanics, and the term travelled with Guyanese communities to New York and Toronto.
Meeting turn
Barbados and the wider Eastern Caribbean
Named for the rotation itself — your "turn" comes round at the meeting.
Elsewhere
Tanda
Mexico and Mexican communities in the US
Order is often drawn by lot at the first meeting.
Cundina
Mexico
A regional synonym for tanda.
Hui
China and Taiwan
Frequently run as a bidding circle: members bid for an early payout by accepting a discount, which makes it behave more like credit.
Kye (계)
Korea
Long used to fund businesses and weddings within Korean communities abroad.
Chit fund
India
The most formalised version. Registered chit funds are regulated under Indian law and run by companies, with bidding determining the payout order.
Committee
Pakistan
"Joining a committee" means joining a rotating savings circle.
Gam’eya
Egypt and the Levant
Typically organised among colleagues, neighbours or extended family.
Paluwagan
Philippines
Extremely common in workplaces, and among Filipino workers abroad.
Arisan
Indonesia
Usually paired with a social gathering; the draw is part of the event.
Does the name change how the app works?
No. The SuSu App runs a fixed-order rotating circle, so whatever your family calls it — ajo, pardna, adashi, box hand — the structure is the one you already know: agree an amount, agree a schedule, everyone pays, one person is paid each round.
What does matter is where the members live. Every member of a circle has to be registered in the same country, which is worth reading about if your family is spread across several: running a susu after you move abroad.
Keep reading
- Esusu and ajo, in an app — the Nigerian terms, what an alajo collector costs, and where it works today.
- What a susu is — the mechanics, a worked example, and the risks stated plainly.
- What a ROSCA is — the umbrella term for every name on this page, and the variants behind them.
- How to start a savings circle — choosing members, setting the amount, and surviving round one.