Esusu isn’t wealth creation: From circulation to ownership: How to move beyond a poverty merry-go-round

In Dubai recently, a young Kenyan woman told me how her grandmother and mother relied on their version of Esusu to pay school fees, stock their shops, and weather hard seasons.

Listening to her, I was reminded of generations of African women, our continent’s original bankers, who built trust networks long before formal banks opened their doors to them.

They gave each other dignity, discipline, and hope.

That legacy deserves honour.

But it also demands evolution.

Because, as I told a senior executive later that evening, Esusu is not a wealth plan. It might actually be a poverty merry-go-round.

Yes, I said it. And before you get defensive, let me be clear: I respect what Esusu has meant to our people. It has history. It served a purpose. It still has value for some communities.

But if we are serious about building generational wealth, especially among African women, we must grow up, graduate, and move from circulating money to compounding and owning assets.

As Paul wrote in Scripture: “When I was a child, I spoke like a child… but when I became a man, I put childish things away.”

Esusu has had its season. But it cannot take us where we need to go next.

The history and benefits of Esusu

Esusu, also called ajo, tontine, susu, or rotating savings clubs, has deep roots across Africa and the diaspora.

It was a lifeline when banks were closed to many of our people. It gave market women dignity, provided small lump sums for trading, and taught discipline. For entrepreneurs with no access to credit, it was a safety net.

Even today, many groups run Esusu successfully, from office colleagues to cooperatives. They’ve stayed consistent for decades, and I applaud them.

Esusu taught us to save, to trust, to be accountable — no small achievement.

But let’s be honest about its limits

Esusu essentially circulates money, but it doesn’t grow money.

You contribute monthly; one person takes. Next month, another person takes it. At the end of the cycle, everyone has received exactly what they put in — minus transfer costs and inflation.

There is no multiplication. No compounding. No asset created.

At best, Esusu is a short-term relief plan. At worst, it locks us into decades of missed opportunity.

Read also: Side-chick economics: The hidden billions of secrecy (Part 1)

A modern dilemma

Not long ago, a senior C-suite executive told me she’d been part of the same Esusu group for nearly ten years.

She laughed and said, “It feels like a merry-go-round — no loss, but no growth either.”

The discipline was there, but the direction was missing.

She never quite knew what to do with the small lump sum that arrived once a year, useful but insignificant next to her main income.

Meanwhile, a businesswoman in her circle told me her monthly payout was often a lifesaver, helping her restock inventory or cover urgent costs.

Both women were right, and both revealed the same truth:

Esusu meets short-term needs, but it doesn’t build long-term wealth.

The real challenge is that most people, especially professionals, don’t know how to graduate from these informal circles into structured investments.

Without experience, access, or credible platforms, they stick to what’s familiar, even when it’s no longer fruitful.

The numbers don’t lie

Let’s make this real.

Scenario 1: 10 people contribute $1,000 each per month.

• Traditional Esusu: one person gets $10,000 a year.

• After five years, everyone has rotated through, and nothing has grown.

Now imagine the group pooled and invested instead:

• $10,000 monthly = $120,000 a year.

• In five years = $600,000 contributed.

• With 8–12 per cent annual returns, it grows to $734,000–$817,000.

• In ten years, that same group could transform $600,000 in pooled savings into over $2 million in assets, without earning a naira more, simply by investing instead of rotating.

Scenario 2: 100 people, $1,000 each

In a traditional Esusu, one person gets $100,000 while others wait.

After ten years, they’ve merely circulated $12 million, no growth, no real ownership.

But if that same group pooled and invested, the outcome would be radically different.

Those same contributions, $1.2 million annually, compounded at even 8–12 percent, could grow into $18 to $23 million.

Even conservative pooled investments, real estate joint ventures, balanced funds, and infrastructure bonds regularly deliver those returns.

That’s not speculative wealth; that’s disciplined, structured compounding. The same capital rotating in Esusu circles could be quietly building multi-million-dollar portfolios.

That’s $6 to $9 million in new wealth, created not by hustle or luck, but by strategy and time.

That’s the difference between circulating money and multiplying it. Between staying afloat and building empires.

Hotels. Land banks. Tech hubs. Schools. Generational assets, all within reach once we choose ownership over rotation.

Read also: Side-chick economics: Beyond the numbers — the practical lessons (Part 2)

My personal vision

This is the thought that birthed Radiant Collective Capital.

Ten years ago, I looked around and thought, ‘What if we took the Esusu principle of trust and turned it into structured investment?’

We began experimenting in 2020. By May 2025, Radiant Collective Capital was born, not just as a company, but as a movement: women moving from circulating to owning, from saving to scaling.

Yes, I sometimes wonder about lost time. But my focus is forward.

Because the opportunity cost of waiting another decade is far too great.

At Radiant Collective Capital, we’re aggregating small cheques to participate in big opportunities, deals once out of reach for individuals, now accessible through disciplined collaboration.

Where Esusu still works

Let’s be fair, Esusu still serves an important purpose for some groups:

• Entry-level financial literacy.

• Building savings discipline.

• Creating accountability in low-trust economies.

• Providing liquidity for micro-traders and community needs.

For these groups, Esusu remains relevant and much better than doing nothing. But for professionals, entrepreneurs, diaspora earners, and women with strong income potential, Esusu is not a strategy. It’s a stage.

It’s time to graduate.

From circulation to ownership

The next decade of African wealth must be collective, structured, and investment-driven.

That’s why we built Radiant Collective Capital, to channel the discipline Esusu gave us into something bigger:

• OWN assets, not just circulate money.

• GROW wealth through compounding returns.

• LEAD by building portfolios that transform families, communities, and nations.

The power of compounding over 5, 10, or 20 years is astonishing.

If we don’t make the shift now, our lost opportunities will become our children’s inheritance gap.

My call to women

African women, especially market women, were the original bankers.

But now it’s time to evolve from daily collectors to capital creators.

Esusu taught us discipline.

Ownership will help us build a financially sustainable future. If Esusu kept us afloat yesterday, collective investment will make us unshakeable tomorrow.

So here’s my challenge:

Will you keep circulating money?

Or will you start multiplying it?

The next ten years will separate those who merely saved… from those who built legacies.

Udo Maryanne Okonjo: Chairwoman, Fine & Country West Africa | Founder, Radiant Collective Capital. Women, Wealth & Power — Challenging Norms. Creating Wealth. Changing Futures.