Ajo is a decentralized community savings and payout platform built on Base, designed to bring Africa’s age-old group savings system — known as Ajo, Esusu, Stokvel, or Chama — into the digital age.
It enables trusted circles to automate contributions, payouts, and transparency using smart contracts.
Across Africa, millions of people rely on informal savings groups to pool money and support one another.
While these systems foster trust and cooperation, they often face problems like missed payments, fraud, and lack of transparency.
Ajo solves this by putting savings groups onchain.
Funds are managed by smart contracts — not people — ensuring automation, transparency, and fairness for everyone.
Every group is governed by a smart contract escrow.
No central collector. No manual records. Just code enforcing group rules.
Contributions and payouts happen automatically on schedule — no delays, no disputes.
Every transaction is verifiable onchain, ensuring full visibility for all group members.
- Rotational Mode – Members take turns receiving payouts.
- Target Pool Mode – Groups save toward a shared goal.
- Flexible Pool Mode – Members deposit anytime and optionally earn yield through DeFi integrations.
Idle funds can be staked via Base DeFi protocols (like Aave) to generate passive income for members.
Supports multiple wallets and will integrate zkLogin for social/email onboarding.
Smart Contracts (Solidity)
GroupFactory.sol– Deploys new savings groupsRotationalSavings.sol– Handles rotational cycles and payoutsTargetPool.sol– Goal-based savingsFlexiblePool.sol– Flexible deposits with optional yieldReputationRegistry.sol– Tracks user savings behavior
Frontend
- Next.js + Tailwind CSS – Responsive, mobile-first interface
- Wagmi + RainbowKit – Wallet connection and onchain interaction
- Supabase – Off-chain metadata and chat
Infrastructure
- Base Network – Low-cost, fast, and scalable for microtransactions
- Foundry – Smart contract development and testing
For now, Ajo uses a mock USDT token for contributions and payouts:
NEXT_PUBLIC_TOKEN_ADDRESS=0x408d5D0C25E588875D818f3161b3326D5d18EcAd
Ajo is built onchain to solve trust and transparency issues in traditional savings systems.
- Smart contracts manage funds safely and automatically.
- Transparency ensures every member can verify group activity.
- Global participation allows members anywhere to join and contribute.
We’re not eliminating traditional savings circles — we’re redefining them and onboarding communities into a secure, inclusive, and borderless financial system.
During development, we ran into:
- State management issues when trying to display groups for a newly added member.
- Mock token limitations while testing payment flows.
- Time constraints, which limited some UI and integration polish.
These will be improved as we continue to refine the project.
Phase 1 – MVP (Current)
- Group creation & contributions
- Rotational/Target/Flexible modes
- Wallet connection and basic dashboard
Phase 2 – Enhancement (Q1 2026)
- Yield integrations with DeFi protocols
- Mobile app
- Group chat (XMTP)
- Reputation system
Phase 3 – Scale (Q2–Q4 2026)
- zkLogin social onboarding
- Fiat on-ramp (Paystack/MoonPay)
- Microloan marketplace
- DAO governance for verified groups
- Community cooperatives and trade associations
- Family and friend savings circles
- Women’s groups and youth collectives
- Faith-based and social organizations
Ajo digitizes Africa’s most trusted financial culture — not to replace it, but to enhance it.
By combining familiar community savings with blockchain’s automation and transparency, Ajo builds a bridge between tradition and technology, empowering millions to save, invest, and grow together.
- Live App: app.ajo.xyz
- GitHub: github.com/ajo-onchain