Rural women's credit systems: a Nigerian example

The following article looks in detail at a rotating credit system used by rural women of Nigeria. This system, which women use to ensure the availability of cash to meet their family's financial needs, has analogues throughout the world. This close study of behavior--in this instance, about how women form groups to save and why--reveals rural women's roles in the family and the economic priorities created by these roles. This kind of information, rarely recorded or attended to, is an indispensable base for learning about how women are affected by and affect development policy. Further, understanding the mode of operation of this credit system and its value to the women who organized it provides guidance for the design the projects that work and are meaningful to women.