Tontines in Cameroon: njangi, meetings and auctions

Njangi, tchwa, “réunion”: what are we talking about?

The principle is the same everywhere: co-opted members pay a contribution into a common pot at each meeting, and each in turn receives the sum collected. An essay published by the Goethe-Institut on Bamileke tontines says that in the West region the tontine is called “tchwa” or “njangui”, words that convey the idea of contributing, pooling and coming together. This site's dictionary lists njangui as a camfranglais word with the same meaning. In French-speaking towns people more often say “réunion” (meeting): a single session often brings together the association itself (family, village, neighbourhood or workplace) and one or more tontines.

How a meeting works

Alain Henry, of the French Development Agency, studied Bamileke tontines and, in a 2003 talk at the École de Paris du management, described very strict rules. In the one he quotes, the meeting is held on the 25th of every month at 7 pm sharp; at 7.16 pm an auditor records latecomers, who are fined 5,000 francs, and a member still absent when the books close has 20% added to his contribution. The agenda has ten items. Joining requires a sponsor among the members, after an inquiry into the candidate's character; on the day he receives the pot, the beneficiary must have a guarantor for his repayments.

Auctions are downward bids. In Alain Henry's example, for a pot of 2,000 euros one member offers to take only 1,800, another 1,700, and so on: the pot goes to whoever asks for least. Sums can be large: in one tontine he studied, the monthly contribution was the equivalent of 2,000 euros and total contributions the equivalent of 250,000 euros. As early as 1992 the economist Christian Rietsch analysed, in the Revue internationale PME, a tontine of Cameroonian expatriates in the Central African Republic with “two levels of auctions” (large and small lots): some members found capital at a competitive price to invest, others a rewarding place for their savings.

How many Cameroonians save in them?

The most regular measure comes from the World Bank's Global Findex survey, which interviews adults in more than 140 countries. Its category “savings club or person outside the family” includes tontines, though not only them. It shows that saving in a tontine remains four times as common as saving in a bank, even though account ownership (mostly mobile money) has soared.

No recent official Cameroonian statistics on the number of tontines or the sums they handle could be found online. Figures that circulate (the share of the working population said to “prefer” tontines to banks, billions of francs in circulation) are not repeated here because their source could not be traced.

Deep cultural roots

The Goethe-Institut essay reports that “cowrie tontines” existed before colonial rule, cowries being the shells used as currency in the region, and that the practice is handed down from father to son as part of an inheritance; it quotes the saying that two Bamileke who met on the Moon would start by founding a meeting with a tontine. Alain Henry, for his part, recounts a Bamileke tale in which all the animals belonged to a work tontine, each in turn having the others till his field: a sign that the tontine is not just a financial tool but a social ritual, with its blessings, speeches and duties towards the sick and the dead.

The word njangi and the practice reach far beyond the West region: they are found in the Pidgin of the English-speaking regions, in towns across the country and in the diaspora. The sources consulted do not allow us to date the word or settle its possible origins, so no etymology is offered here.

Funding a business, saving from abroad

For a trader or a small business owner, the auction tontine works as quick credit, with no paperwork or bank collateral: whoever needs capital to buy stock or a machine “buys” the pot, and the other members act as lenders. This is the mechanism described in Rietsch's study of a tontine of Cameroonian expatriates. Tontines are also used to save for the start of the school year, to build a house or to pay for funerals. The diaspora reproduces the model abroad and uses it to keep ties with the home village or family. For other sources of finance (banks, microfinance, public funds), see the page on funding a project.

The risks: defaults, embezzlement, scams

• Default by a member who has already received the pot: this is the core risk, hence sponsors, guarantors and penalties. Alain Henry describes very heavy social sanctions (public reprimand, shame) and reports that when a member dies, his family takes over his contributions.
• Embezzlement by a treasurer or organiser who vanishes with the pot; AFP cited this risk in 2024, along with sign-ups under false identities on apps.
• Fake “tontines” promising high returns to strangers: these are scams, not tontines in the traditional sense, which rest on members knowing each other.
• No simple redress: with no legal status, disputes are settled first within the group and then, possibly, in court, where commitments that are often unwritten are hard to prove. This site's dictionary notes that their informal nature “often leaves the door open to conflict”.

What does the law say?

No Cameroonian law dealing specifically with community tontines could be found. Groups that want a framework usually register as associations. Two confusions are common. First, the CIMA insurance code (1992), which applies in Cameroon, regulates “tontine operations”, but these are insurance products sold by licensed companies, not njangi. Second, COBAC (the Central African Banking Commission) supervises banks and microfinance institutions, governed since 27 September 2017 by a CEMAC regulation; a tontine that took deposits from the public beyond its own members would come within that regime.

On tax, the 2022 finance law made non-profit bodies, tontines included, that carry on a profitable commercial activity liable to tax (15% plus 10% in additional municipal levies); according to Financial Afrik, the tax authority clarified in a note that only non-profit bodies carrying on a commercial activity are covered.

Digital tontines

Since the mid-2010s, apps have made it possible to run a tontine by phone, contributions included, often through mobile money. According to AFP (March 2024), one of the first, Djangui, was launched in 2016 by Guilain Kenfack and claims 50,000 users; in one user's group, each member paid 10,000 CFA francs a week. Competing apps have since appeared. AFP also notes that some people prefer to keep their tontine face to face, for the company and because they know who is holding their money.

Frequently asked questions