This is the 2-page executive summary for the IMTFI Working Paper: What Drives Behavioral Intention of Mobile Money Adoption? The Case of Ancient Susu Saving Operations in Ghana.

The susu (deposit) savings scheme has traditionally been an important, effective way for low-income and financially-excluded people in Ghana to save money. It is not cost-effective for formal banking institutions to handle large volumes of small deposits or to physically provide service to isolated rural areas, and the cost of sending savings deposits to banks is prohibitive, effectively precluding poor people in urban and rural areas from using them.

Susu savings schemes provide a convenient, informal, flexible, and cost-effective mechanism for individuals to save money on a regular basis. The rotating savings andcredit association is a type of susu scheme in which an operator reaches an agreement with a user regarding the amount to be collected, frequency of collection, and operator’s commission. Collectors for the susu operator ‘walk’ to visit their users (on foot, bicycle, or motor bike) on a daily or weekly basis to collect their savings, and record it on a card often kept by the users. This is convenient for both parties, and creates a social contract based on mutual trust and obligating the user to physically give the money to the collector, and the collector to visit the user to collect it and then return the accumulated savings to them at the end of the month. No legal documentation is involved.