The interplay between official and unofficial laws in rotating savings and credit associations (Eqqub) in Tigray, Ethiopia

[en] © 2017 The Journal of Legal Pluralism and Unofficial Law. This article investigates how unofficial and official laws interact in regulating rotating savings and credit associations (ROSCA) in the Tigray Regional State in northern Ethiopia. ROSCAs are informal institutions that provide saving and lending facilities in traditional communities and societies across the world. In Ethiopia, they are known by the name “Eqqub.” First, essential background information on ROSCA will be provided, including references to the existing scientific literature. A second section will clarify the methodology used for the empirical research on “Eqqub” in the Tigray Regional State. The third part of the paper presents the actual findings of that investigation on the ground, especially concentrating on legal issues surrounding the governance of “Eqqub.” One of the main conclusions will be that the regulation of informal credit networks in northern Ethiopia is a paramount example of how normative pluralism works in practice, with official and unofficial laws and institutions interacting in subtle ways to order socio-economic reality