Digital Asusu is a daily savings scheme for low income earners. This low-cost solution is brought to the doorstep of savers by mobile agents who use their mobile devices to mop up cash from savers and credit their wallets with digital tokens equivalent to cash value.
Digital Asusu helps low income earners to:
- save money securely,
- access micro credit transparently and
- plan for a better life efficiently.
This self-help initiative of the NYCC Members Cooperative Society Ltd brings value added financial inclusion to the financially unserved in the micro informal sector.
The Central Bank of Nigeria has endorsed Digital Asusu as "an ingenious proposition towards digitizing informal savings to improve access to finance for young entrepreneurs in Nigeria." This aligns with the priority of the bank to digitize financial services as a viable channel to bring highly excluded segments such as youth and MSMEs into the formal financial sector.
As a result, the apex bank has invited the Nigerian Youth Chamber of Commerce to join the National Financial Inclusion Special Interventions Working Group (FISIWG).
We are open to collaborate with key stakeholders in the financial eco system to continue to promote financial inclusion and help millions save their way out of poverty in Nigeria.
Abba is a hardworking printer who was working and saving money with two local savings operators (Esusu) to buy a printing machine. After one year, Abba deposits his total savings on the printer he wanted to buy, and agreed to work a few more months and balance the dealer N300,000 so that he could take ownership of his new printer. But as soon as his boss finds out about Abba’s transaction, the young man is sacked. Suddenly, Abba has no job, and no source of income, worse still, he is about to lose his deposit and the equipment all together. At the nick of time, his parents scrambled money and gave him to pay the dealer and save the deal.
Notice that with N500,000, Abba could not get a N300,000 loan from the banks, nor from the Esusu operators to augment his payment on the printing machine. He was lucky his parents could bail him out. Do you know how many people face Abba’s situation daily? Millions! Over 40% of adults in Nigeria have no access to the basic financial services. Most of them are young men and women working hard yet trapped in the vicious circle of poverty. We knew this has to stop. So, we created Digital Asusu.
When Abba saves on Digital Asusu at the rate he was saving, he would not need to save for one year. In three months, Abba would access credit five times his savings, enough for him to take ownership of the printing equipment. That gives him a lead time of 9 months in one year. A time big enough for him to startup operations and create jobs for his peers. By running his business, Abba can save more and pay off the loan easily.
By digitizing daily savings through Digital Asusu, the Nigerian Youth Chamber of Commerce gives savers like Abba the opportunity to build up cash and leverage their savings to buy micro insurance, mortgage for affordable housing, Micro pensions and many more financial inclusion services.