Othniel
For years ...
my mother shared stories about how she and her friends would pool money together to help out each other during times of need. Though it was rare for them to pool a large amount—maybe $300 at most — it was an effective way to help those in need while still building and maintaining relationships with other women in the community. These savings schemes are referred to as Adashe or Ajo in Yoruba.
The term “Adashe” is derived from the Hausa language, which means “to trust.” In Nigeria, Adashe refers to a group of women who save money collectively for their members, with only one trusted member having access to that money. This way, women can access emergency funds without spending their savings. More broadly, Adashe also refers to a system of saving and loaning money in which its members help one another by establishing credit histories and thus expanding opportunities for members’ financial stability. As such, “Adashe” is based on trust between women; no formal contracts or legal documents are involved.
Women’s Adashe groups operate as informal institutions (i.e., they are not regulated by the government), but they have become increasingly popular due to increased awareness about microfinance initiatives. There are many variations of Adashe groups, but typically, all women pay monthly contributions into a central fund managed by one woman known as the treasurer. Members may borrow money from the fund whenever they need it and pay it back when they can afford it.
Adashe loans are interest-free, meaning that women never have to pay back more than what they borrowed. Women often use these loans to pay school fees, cover medical expenses, and buy food staples during lean times. Some women even use their savings pools to start small businesses, while others use them as safety nets against unexpected life events like illness or death.
Today, money pooling is still practised in several African countries. It’s estimated that over 20 million people participate in these money pools, which can be a lifeline for those who don’t have access to banks or credit unions.
Does pooling money together still work today?
Most traditional businesses operate on a profit motive, but they also have resources available that are less common in individual operations. These include bank loans, business grants, and micro-finance programs. A group of friends can pool money together to make a sizeable investment in a business venture with low risk for all involved. If you pool your money as a group and invest it directly into a promising idea, you’ll likely be able to reap greater rewards without having to pay any additional fees or interest charges.
The benefit of pooling money is that it allows you to collectively invest a large sum of money at once. For example, let’s say you want to buy a house but don’t have enough for a down payment. You could try to get a loan, but it might be difficult if your credit isn’t great or you don’t have enough income to support your payments. A better option would be to find other people who also want to buy houses and pool your money together so that each person has enough for their down payment. This way, everyone gets what they want while only making one mortgage payment instead of several smaller ones. This method can work with almost anything—you just need to find other people with similar goals and interests as yourself.
Five Tips for Creating Your Own Successful Pool
If you find yourself in a position where you need to invest but can not afford to do so on your own, do like my mother did and put a plan together to pool your resources with friends. Here are five tips that’ll help you create your own successful pool.
1. Decide on the goal amount you and your pool need to raise. This will help you determine how many people you need and how much each person needs to contribute.
2. Make a list of all of your contacts who might be able to contribute some money to your pool (friends, family members, coworkers). Include everyone you can think of who might be willing to pitch in—the more people involved, the better.
3. Once you have your list of potential contributors, it’s time to get them on board. Communicate clearly and often. Be clear about what you need and when you need it, so they know how much they should contribute.
4. Keep track of contributions as they come in. Once someone has agreed to give up some cash toward your goal, make sure they follow through by keeping track of each contribution made toward your goal (and everyone knows who contributed what). Be transparent. Make sure everyone in your pool understands how the money they have contributed will be kept, used, invested, or distributed.
5. Make sure that the funds are invested in the manner intended. To build trust among your pool members, stick to your goals and objectives and follow through on your promises.
For money pools to work, there must be trust.
Trust is one of the most critical ingredients for success when pooling resources together.
If you are investing a significant amount of money in one person’s or group’s hands, you will want to know that your funds are secure and growing. This can be accomplished if there is trust between you and everyone in your pool. Everyone should feel confident that their investment is safe and will get their return on investment (ROI) at some point. If there isn’t any trust, then it may not be worth joining a pool, especially since many people don’t have enough money to invest. Pooling together makes it possible for anyone to participate, even those with very little capital.
How modern infrastructure like blockchain and smart contracts are making money pooling easier and safer
Money pooling is a very effective way to finance a large project. However, the lack of trust and transparency in current models makes it hard for many people to engage in money pooling activities. Blockchain technology has made it possible to solve these problems. Adashe is one such project that allows you to set up your savings where you can invest with friends or family and earn interest on your investments.
Adashe represents the spirit of community, growth, and progress.
Adashe is a seamless fusion of Tradefi, DeFi, and Data systems, It is the future of Money, It is available across multiple Blockchains.
Developed by crypto pioneers, aerospace inventors, engineers, data scientist and tech leaders, Adashe establishes a standardized industry framework for trade, finance, data and for adoption of blockchain and crypto.
Adabase is a federated data solution which will allow for robust and real time interactions of and with data from an endless stream of sources.
Supply chains, performance data tracking and automated execution of commands specific to user and situation are all uses, giving users a detailed snapshot and the ability to respond faster and more precisely.
Our crypto currency lubricates the ecosystem and serves as payment for interactions at predetermined intervals. Enterprise and non-enterprise users can interact with our Eco-system via our app and web-based solutions across different platforms for free.
Adabase while built to work with Adashe can via smart contracts execute payments for other chains with associated fees, furthermore Project Adashe plans to eventually run on its own custom blockchain protocol.
Project Adashe is set for launch on the 28th of January 2024.
Visit our website at www.adashe.io to learn more!
Join us on Telegram and Twitter, join the movement, and let’s make Project Adashe a reality — together!
Telegram: https://t.me/adashechat
Twitter: https://twitter.com/adashefndn
