OzikoroThe Architecture of Trust: Pre-colonial Igbo Communal Savings and Rotating Credit Systems
Long before the advent of Western “commercial banking” and formal financial institutions in Nigeria, the Igbo people of the Southeast had developed a sophisticated, community-based financial infrastructure. Known variously as Isusu, these “Rotating Savings and Credit Associations” (ROSCAs) served as the bedrock of the pre-colonial “commercial empire” of the Niger Delta hinterland. These systems…