Running a Susu Abroad

This is not a policy choice we could waive. Payouts run through Stripe Connect, and a cross-border payout from our platform is not something Stripe will settle. The app enforces it at every layer — you will be stopped at signup rather than discovering it halfway through a round.

In practice this matters less than it sounds, because the circle that actually helps you is usually local anyway. The rent, the deposit, the car, the course fees and the business stock are all priced where you live.

The people it fits best are the ones who already know what a susu is and have lost access to one:

• Ghanaians and Nigerians in the UK, Ireland, the US, Canada and across the EU who ran an ajo, esusu, adashi or susu at home and have not found a trustworthy one since arriving.
• Caribbean communities in the UK, US and Canada where partner, pardna and box hand are long-established but still run in cash, through one person's hands.
• Anyone thin-filed at a local bank. A recent arrival with no credit history is precisely the person a bank will not lend to and a susu will.
• Groups that already exist offline — a church group, a hometown association, a workplace — and want the record-keeping without changing how they operate.

Most diaspora circles still run informally: one trusted organiser collects, holds and distributes. That works until it does not, and the failures are always the same two — someone stops paying after their payout, and there is no record to settle an argument with.

• No one holds the pot. Money moves through Stripe Connect straight to the recipient. The organiser never has custody, which removes both the temptation and the burden of being trusted with it.
• The order is fixed and visible before the first round opens, so the most common argument in an informal circle cannot happen.
• Missed payments surface immediately, with reminders sent automatically and an admin able to remove a member who stops paying.
• Reliability becomes portable. Trust scores and reviews build across circles, which is what a newcomer with no local reputation most needs.

Creating and joining is free, and contributions carry no added fee — you pay exactly the contribution amount. Fees come out of the pot only when you receive a payout: a 5% platform fee (minimum $0.30), plus Stripe's own costs passed on with no markup — what it charged to collect the round's contributions (about 2.9% + $0.30 per card payment, about 0.8% per bank payment), payout processing of 0.25% + $0.25, and a $2 account fee on your first payout of each calendar month. On a $700 pot paid entirely by card, that is $35.00 + $23.30 + $2.00 + $2.00, leaving $637.70; paid by bank debit, about $655.40. There is no subscription. Every member can see the breakdown before the round closes.

Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa and Côte d’Ivoire are not live. Those markets need a mobile money payout rail rather than card and bank rails, and it is still being built. If you are in one of them, you can create an account, but you will not be able to receive a payout yet.

If you are Ghanaian or Nigerian and living in one of the 42 supported countries, none of that applies to you. You register where you live, and you can start today.

• 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.
• Susu, ajo, esusu, partner hand — one idea under a dozen names.
• How to start a savings circle — choosing members, setting the amount, and surviving round one.