Terms of service

1. What Kolect is, and is not

1. Kolect is a payment channel: it lets a student identify themselves, see what they owe, and be directed to a licensed payment provider to pay it, and it records the outcome and issues receipts.
2. Kolect is not a payment provider, a bank, a payment service provider, a switching company or a financial institution. We do not hold, receive, custody or transmit funds. Every payment is processed by a third-party payment provider licensed by the Central Bank of Nigeria, and settled by that provider directly to the bank account the School or its collecting unit has nominated.
3. The relationship between the School and the payment provider, including settlement timing, chargebacks, disputes and provider fees, is governed by that provider's own terms. We facilitate the connection and pass information between the parties; we are not a party to the payment itself.

2. Choice of payment provider

1. We reserve the right to route payments through any payment provider we deem fit, to add or remove providers, and to change the provider used by the School or any of its collecting units at any time, including without notice where a provider's availability, reliability, pricing or regulatory standing requires it.
2. The School may express a preference for a provider we support, but the final choice of provider for each transaction rests with us.
3. A change of provider does not alter the amount the School has set, the School's entitlement to the collected sum, or the service charge described in section 3, except where these terms say otherwise. The provider's own fee, which the student bears under section 3, may differ from one provider to another.

3. Service charges

1. We are entitled to collect a service charge on every payment made through the Platform, at the rates stipulated on the Platform for the School at the time the payment is initiated. The charge is a flat amount per payment, the same whatever the amount of the collection, at the figure agreed with the School or otherwise the Platform's standard figure.
2. The service charge is added on top of the amount the School has set, is shown to the student before they pay, and is deducted by the payment provider at settlement or otherwise retained by us. The School receives the amount it set for the collection; the service charge is ours.
3. We may revise service charges from time to time. A revision applies to payments initiated after it takes effect, never to a checkout already opened, and we will give the School reasonable notice through the Platform or by email to its administrator.
4. The payment provider's fee for processing a payment is separate from our service charge and is borne by the student: it is added to what the student pays, either by us at the rate we have agreed with the provider or by the provider at its own checkout, and is shown to the student before they pay. Bank charges and any government levies applicable to a transaction are borne as the provider's terms and the law provide.

4. The School's account and its people

1. The School is responsible for everyone it grants access to: its administrators, and the contacts it assigns to its faculties, departments and other collecting units. Access is personal; credentials must not be shared, and the School must deactivate access promptly when someone leaves or changes role.
2. The School warrants that every collection it creates is one it is entitled to collect, that the amounts and eligibility rules it sets are accurate, and that the bank accounts and settlement codes it nominates belong to it or to the collecting unit concerned.
3. The School is responsible for the accuracy of the student rosters it uploads, including names, matriculation numbers, levels and the phone numbers used to confirm a student's identity. We act on the roster as given.
4. The School must keep its bot credentials, if it brings its own Telegram bot or WhatsApp number, confidential and current.

5. Student data and privacy

1. The School is the data controller for the personal data of its students that it uploads or that arises from their payments. We process that data on the School's behalf, for the purpose of operating the Platform, in accordance with the Nigeria Data Protection Act 2023 and any regulations made under it.
2. The School confirms it has a lawful basis to share its students' data with us, and to have students contacted through the Platform about what they owe, including payment reminders. A student who asks to stop receiving reminders will be left alone.
3. We keep payment records, receipts and audit logs for as long as the law and the School's legitimate needs require, and we do not sell personal data. We may use anonymised, aggregated information to operate and improve the Platform.
4. Each School's data is confined to that School. A user sees only what their role and assignments allow.

6. Receipts, refunds and disputes

1. A receipt is issued only after the payment provider has confirmed the payment to us. A receipt is evidence that a payment was made through the Platform; it is the School that decides what a payment entitles the student to.
2. Refunds are the School's decision and responsibility. Where a refund is agreed, it is processed through the payment provider that took the payment, subject to that provider's terms. Our service charge on a refunded payment is not refundable unless the payment failed because of a fault of ours.
3. Where the Platform detects that a payment settled for an amount different from what was requested, or that the same obligation was paid twice, it quarantines the payment for review. We will assist the School and the provider in resolving it, but we do not adjudicate disputes between the School and its students.

7. Availability and delivery

1. We aim to keep the Platform available at all times but do not guarantee uninterrupted service. Maintenance, provider outages, chat-platform limits and events outside our control may interrupt it.
2. Messages delivered through Telegram, WhatsApp, SMS or email are delivered on a best-effort basis and are subject to those platforms' rules and limits. A receipt is always also available to download from the Platform.
3. We may suspend or restrict access where we reasonably believe an account has been compromised, the Platform is being misused, the law requires it, or a payment provider directs it.

8. Acceptable use

The School and its users must not use the Platform to collect money they are not entitled to, to collect from people who are not their students, to probe or enumerate other Schools' data, to interfere with the Platform's operation, or in breach of any law. We may remove a collection, suspend a user or terminate a School's access for a breach of this section.

9. Intellectual property

The Platform, its software, design, documentation and the Kolect name and marks belong to us or our licensors. The School receives a non-exclusive, non-transferable right to use the Platform for the purpose of collecting its own payments while these terms are in force. The School's name, crest and data remain the School's.

10. Liability

1. To the fullest extent the law allows, we are not liable for indirect or consequential loss, loss of revenue or data, or for any loss arising from a payment provider's act or omission, a bank's delay, a chat platform's rules, inaccurate roster data, or the School's own decisions about collections and refunds.
2. Our total liability to the School in any twelve-month period is limited to the service charges we earned from that School's payments in that period.
3. Nothing in these terms excludes liability that cannot be excluded by law.

11. Term and termination

1. These terms apply from the moment the School is onboarded and continue until either party ends them. The School may stop using the Platform at any time by writing to us. We may end the School's access on reasonable notice, or immediately for a material breach.
2. On termination, payments already initiated are completed and settled as normal, the School may export its records for a reasonable period, and sections 3, 5, 6, 9 and 10 continue to apply.

12. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms. When we do, the School's administrator is asked to accept the new version at their next sign-in, and the new version applies from the date shown at the top. Continued use of the Platform after that date is acceptance of the updated terms.

13. General

1. These terms are governed by the laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and the courts of Nigeria have jurisdiction over any dispute arising from them.
2. If any part of these terms is found unenforceable, the rest continues to apply.
3. Notices to us go to hello@kolect.online. Notices to the School go to the email address of its administrator on the Platform.