Coping in crisis: women’s rotating savings and credit associations strategies in Nigeria within the context of Covid-19

Following limited access to public and market-based safety-nets, informal social protection mechanisms still make up the chief cause of risk management for most people in the world. Rotating Savings and Credit Associations (ROSCAs) are among the informal social protection mechanisms in emerging nations including Nigeria. They provide access to funding to individuals that might not have access to the formal credit institutions, especially women who are majorly disadvantaged in accessing formal credit. In the face of covariate shocks, ROSCAs which are successful in controlling idiosyncratic risks are theorized to collapse, with formal mechanisms which are market or public-based being robust against this kind of shocks. A qualitative research design using interviews as data collection tools was used to explore how entrepreneurial women ROSCAs in Nigeria are coping within the context of a covariate shock like COVID-19 and findings reveal that informal social protection mechanisms like ROSCAs have the potential of enabling members to become more resistant to risks and more resilient in cushioning against such shocks in the absence of State support mechanisms.