The Sòl Goes Global: How the World Saves in Circles

Here's something most people don't realize: the Haitian sòl is not a local custom. It's one branch of a single idea that humans on every continent arrived at independently — pool your money with people you trust, and take turns receiving the pot. Different names, different languages, same beautiful machine. Billions of dollars move through these circles every year, almost entirely outside the formal banking system.

If you run a sòl, you're part of one of the oldest and most widespread financial traditions on Earth. Here's the map.

The same idea, a hundred names

Walk around the world and you'll find the sòl wearing different clothes:

• Haiti — sòl (or men)
• Mexico & Latin America — tanda or cundina
• West Africa (Nigeria, Ghana) — susu, esusu, or ajo
• Egypt & the Arab world — gam'eya
• Pakistan & India — committee, kameti, chit fund, or beesi
• China — hui
• Korea — kye
• The Caribbean (Jamaica, Trinidad) — partner or sou-sou
• Cambodia — tontine
• Ethiopia — equb

Economists have a less poetic name for all of them: ROSCA — a Rotating Savings and Credit Association. But whatever you call it, the mechanism is identical to the sòl: fixed contributions, a rotating payout, and trust as the only collateral.

How big is this, really?

Bigger than almost anyone outside these communities understands. In many countries, a large share of the population saves this way:

• In Egypt, group savings circles are so widespread that a fintech built on them, MoneyFellows, has grown to over 8.5 million users.
• In Pakistan, research suggests roughly four in ten people have participated in a committee, with billions rotating through them every year.
• Across the developing world and the global diaspora, these circles move enormous sums — quietly, person to person, with no bank in the middle.

This isn't a quaint tradition hanging on at the margins. It's a parallel financial system that hundreds of millions of people trust more than the bank.

Why the whole world landed on the same idea

When the formal financial system doesn't serve you — too expensive, too far away, too much paperwork, doesn't speak your language — communities build their own. And again and again, in cultures that never met, they built the same thing. That's not a coincidence. It's evidence that the savings circle solves a real, universal human problem:

• It creates access to a lump sum without loans or interest.
• It enforces saving discipline through social commitment.
• It runs on trust and relationships, which every community already has.
• It keeps money circulating inside the community instead of leaking out in fees.

The savings circle is, in a sense, humanity's original fintech — invented over and over, everywhere, because it works.

The global moment

Something interesting is happening now: the world's savings circles are coming out of the shadows and onto the stage. Founders from Cairo to Karachi to London are building modern tools on top of this ancient model — adding transparency, verification, and reach while keeping the trust and community that make it work. In Egypt, Pakistan, the UK, the model is being celebrated, funded, and scaled.

And the Haitian sòl belongs in that conversation. For generations it has done for Haitian families exactly what the gam'eya does in Egypt and the committee does in Pakistan — and the global Haitian diaspora, from Miami to Montreal, is one of the most trust-rich, community-tight populations anywhere. The sòl was never behind. It just hasn't had its moment on the stage yet.

That's the moment Konekte exists to create — not to import a foreign model, but to give the Haitian sòl the same modern tools the rest of the world is now celebrating, built by people who grew up in the tradition.

Frequently asked questions

Is a sòl the same as a ROSCA? Yes. ROSCA (Rotating Savings and Credit Association) is the academic term; sòl is the Haitian name for the same system.

What's the difference between a sòl, a tanda, and a susu? None in mechanism — they're the same rotating-savings idea from different cultures. Sòl is Haitian, tanda is Mexican, susu is West African and Caribbean.

Why do people use savings circles instead of banks? Access to a lump sum without loans or credit checks, built-in saving discipline, community trust, and keeping money inside the community rather than paying it out in interest and fees.

Are savings circles a new fintech trend? The model is centuries old. What's new is the technology being built on top of it — making circles more transparent, verifiable, and accessible while keeping the trust at their core.

Konekte brings the Haitian sòl into the modern age — safer, simpler, and built on the trust that has always made it work.