In the Accra Makola Market, traders count what they received the previous day to save a certain amount for the next day’s needs.
This ceremony is a manifestation of a basic fact that what we think of money starts long before we even earn a pesewa.
It is the kind of financial socialisation we gradually develop as we grow up that is determining Ghana’s economic fate.
It has been ascertained that children who observe how their parents save regularly have a 40 per cent chance of becoming habitual savers in their adulthood.
Children in Ghana grow up with mothers putting in their money in the daily susu collections and fathers discussing the budgets and being involved in family financial matters.
The effects of these experiences are mental blueprints that inform how one will spend his or her life financially.
General saving habits are linked positively to financial socialisation, as well as self-control encountered early in life.
This has a far-reaching impact on the development of the economy of Ghana.
Susu: Ghana school of indigenous finance
The susu system is more than saving, since it also carries with it comprehensive financial training in the name of community customs.
Susu introduces discipline where some amount of earnings should be spent, thus forming habits that go beyond the shorter-term objectives.
A case in point is Akosua, a Kumasi seamstress, who entered a first susu group when she was 16.
She is running three prosperous tailoring shops today.
"Susu taught me how to be patient and how to plan," she said.
This is an example of financial socialisation taking place.
The collective decision-making promotes the sense of discipline in members, teaches them to set goals and learn to assess risks.
Digital change, old appetite
The mobile money revolution in Ghana is changing how people save, although this is only possible because of socialised financial behaviours in the country.
Susu is opening traditional people and practices to the mainstream services as rural banks take the previously closed customers into formal systems.
Childhood behavioural patterns determine how effectively Ghanaians adopt new financial tools.
Mobile banking comes easily to the people who have been brought up in households that encourage saving.
On the other hand, the financially unsocialised find it difficult to be in control of impulses in online settings.
Education, financial resilience
The future of finances of Ghana would depend on how financial socialisation would be enhanced among the communities.
Village Savings and Loan Associations are very important tools in northern Ghana, where there are not many formal banks.
The schools have the responsibility to play bigger roles in financial socialisation.
The saving habits should be developed with practical exercise on saving in the financial literacy curriculum.
Students require practical training in budgeting and goal-setting, which are the skills that would normally be acquired by the students during their enrolment into the suspension family susu.
Policy implications
Any programme that is aimed at supporting financial inclusion should not aim at replacing other practices that already exist, but focus on supporting those practices. Best practices combine both conventional savings practices with modern technology in an approach that upholds cultural concepts but increases access.
Products that will strengthen good behaviours acquired during the process of socialisation should be designed by financial institutions.
Cultural strengths can be captured through features that motivate regular deposits, with the added benefit of discouraging operators in the formal sector.
Way ahead
A successful economic transformation in Ghana needs fostering of sets of behaviours that lead to economic activity.
This foundation is given by financial socialisation.
All the in-house discussions on finance and savings groups in the community are adding to the economy of Ghana.
Ghana stands to benefit by enhancing the processes so as to produce financially responsible citizens who are ready to tackle the financial realities of the modern world.
Countries that have a high savings culture are always ahead of countries that rely on outside funding.
The traditional financial saviour fair of Ghana would turn out to be the best economic resource we have ever had.
Whether Ghanaians need to save is not even the question. Our susu tradition testifies to that fact.
The real question is how to make sure that financial socialisation is provided to all the Ghanaian children so that they could have the chance to succeed in the economy of the future.
The writer is a research/teaching assistant,
Kwame Nkrumah
University of Science and Technology (KNUST).
E-mail: kyeicollins018@gmail.com;
