Cash Loans Terms and Conditions – Tugende Limited
1. Agreement
1.1. By selecting the “Accept” option at the end of this document, you agree to be bound by the terms and conditions herein stipulated for grant of the credit facility herein termed as a Top-up Loan.
2. Definitions
In these Terms and Conditions, the following words and expressions (save where the context requires otherwise) bear the following meanings:
2.1. “Appropriate Loan Amount” means the amount of money suitable depending on the Company’s evaluation of the Client’s credit worthiness.
2.2. “Credit Reference Bureau” means an entity duly licensed under the laws of Uganda to disseminate credit information.
2.3. “Company” means Tugende Limited of Plot 57, Ntinda II Road, Naguru, P.O Box 3304, Kampala, Uganda.
“Client” means the person whose details are provided in an approved application for a credit facility submitted to the Company through the Platform.
2.4. “Client Care Centre” means the Company branch office under which the Client is primarily managed.
2.5. “Equipment” means a device used by the Client to access the Platform. 2.6. “OTP” one-time pin code sent to the Client with loan offer
2.1. “Platform” means the Unstructured Supplementary Service Data operating system designed by the Company for accessing the Top-up Loan.
2.2. “Request” means an instruction from the Client to the Company through the Platform
2.3. “Registered mobile user” means a person whose personal details have been submitted to the telecom provider and effectively registered.
2.4. “Services” shall include any form of micro financing services or products that the Company is licensed to provide.
2.5. “SMS” means a text message.
2.6. “Top-up Loan” means a short-term loan to be disbursed to you by the Company upon approval of your application for credit facility.
2.7. “We,” “our,” and “us,” means the Company.
2.8. “You” or “your” means the Client and includes the personal representatives of the Client.
2.9. Words importing the singular meaning where the context so admits include the plural meaning and vice versa.
2.10. Headings in these Terms and Conditions are for convenience purposes only and they do not affect the interpretation of this Agreement.
3. Acceptance of the terms and conditions
You are expected to read and obtain independent legal or financial advice about the terms and conditions herein before accepting any of the same or using the Platform.
If you do not agree with these Terms and Conditions, please select the “Decline” option.
4. You will be deemed to have read, understood and accepted these Terms and Conditions if you:-
4.1.1. Select the “Accept” or “Confirm” option on the Menu requesting you to confirm or accept at any stage of your transaction or account opening process; or 4.1.2. Use, continue to use or operate the Account.
5. Account opening
5.1. In order to access the Top-up Loan, you shall be required to open and maintain an Account on the Platform with the Company. Account holders shall:
5.1.1. Be of sound mind and above the age of eighteen (18).
5.1.2. Be registered mobile users with a valid national identification
document or residency permit for non-Ugandans.
5.2. The Company reserves the right to establish the authenticity and status of your registration / document submitted.
5.3. You may open an Account solely over the Platform using your Equipment. 6. Personal information
6.1. The Company shall collect, store and use the Client personal information in accordance with the provisions of the data protections laws applicable in Uganda. 6.2. You further acknowledge and authorize the Company to verify such personal information received from relevant authorities.
6.3. The Company reserves the right to request for further information from you pertaining to your Account or application for a Top-up Loan at any time and failure to provide such information within the time required by the Company may result in the Company declining to accept your application for a Top-up Loan or closing your Account.
7. Acceptance and communication
7.1. Acceptance by the Company of your application for an Account or grant of the Top-up Loan shall be done via SMS sent to the telephone number provided by you on the Platform.
7.2. Acceptance of your application for an Account does not create any contractual relationship between you and the Company beyond these terms and conditions. 7.3. The Company reserves the right to decline / revoke your application for either an Account or Top-up Loan at any stage at its sole discretion and without assigning any reason thereto.
7.4.All communication in relation to the Account and the Top-up Loan shall be made via SMS or any other mode that the Company may from time to time determine.
7.5. All your communications to the Company in relation to the Account or Top-up Loan shall be addressed to your respective Client Care Service Centre via at your respective branch in which you (the client) is registered.
8. Top-up loan
8.1. The Account holder may, subject to these Terms and Conditions, apply for a loan from the Company on Platform by dialling short Code *271*270#.
8.2. The Application shall be appraised according to the applicable loan appraisal processes of the Company and the Company reserves the right at its sole discretion and without assigning any reason to approve or decline the application for a loan based on the appraisal.
8.3. You authorize and consent to the Company’s verification of your credit worthiness from the Credit Reference Bureau.
8.4.Upon approval of your application, the Company shall disburse to you an Appropriate Loan Amount. The Appropriate Loan Amounts shall range from a minimum amount of Uganda Shillings One Hundred and Fifty Thousand (UGX. 150,000/=) to a maximum amount of Uganda Shillings Three Hundred and Fifty Thousand (UGX. 350,000/=).
8.5. The Company reserves the right to vary the minimum and maximum amounts above, depending on the Client’s credit worthiness.
8.6.The loan amount shall be deposited into the mobile money wallet of your choice provided to the Company in your application.
8.7. The Top-up Loan shall be subject to a flat monthly interest rate of 4.5%. This rate may be subject to the review, depending on the prevailing economic conditions.
8.8.Loan repayment shall commence within a period of seven (7) days from the date of disbursement of the Appropriate Laon to the mobile money wallet.
8.9.The number of repayment instalments is set at 13 weekly instalments over a period of three months.
8.10. The weekly repayments shall be deposited on the Company’s payment channels that include the following: Payway, MTN Mobile Money, Airtel Mobile Money, Centenary Bank and or any other official Tugende payment channel.
9. Default in repayment
9.1. Where the Client is in default, he / she shall be liable to pay:
9.1.1. A penalty fee of UGX 3,000.00 of the instalment amount to be raised 24 hours after a missed payment.
10. Fees
The Client shall be liable for the following:
10.1. Transactional charges billed by the telecom operator in respect of any mobile money transaction;
10.2. Taxes payable in relation to any mobile money remittances being made to the Company;
10.3. Search fees or other costs incurred by the Company in carrying our due diligence on the Client or collecting KYC information in relation to the Client.
11. Account statements
The Client may, on request be provided with a summary of his / her loan performance activity indicating debits and credits over the Account.
12. Irrevocable authority of the Tugende (U) Limited
12.1. It is hereby understood that by selecting the “Accept” option, you irrevocably authorize the Company to act on all requests triggered by such option on the Platform. You shall therefore be liable in respect thereof, notwithstanding that any such requests are not authorized by you or are not in accordance with any existing mandates given by you.
12.2. If you request the Company to cancel any transaction or instruction after a request has been received by the Company from you, it may at its absolute discretion cancel such transaction or instruction but shall have no obligation to do so.
12.3. The Company shall be entitled to accept and to act upon any request, even if that request is otherwise for any reason incomplete or ambiguous if, in its absolute discretion, the Company believes that it can correct the incomplete or ambiguous information in the request without any reference to you being necessary.
12.4. The Company is authorized to affect such orders in respect of your Top-up Loan as may be required by any court order or competent authority or agency under the applicable laws.
12.5. In the event of any conflict between any terms of any request received by the Company from you and these Terms and Conditions, these Terms and Conditions shall prevail.
13. Client’s equipment and client’s responsibilities
13.1.The Client shall at his or her cost;
13.1.1. Maintain in safe and efficient operating order the Equipment necessary for the purpose of accessing the Platform.
13.1.2. Be responsible for ensuring the proper performance of your Equipment and the Company shall neither be responsible for any errors or failures caused by any malfunction of your Equipment, and nor any virus or
related problems that may be associated with the use of the Platform
or the Equipment.
13.1.3. Be responsible for charges due to any service provider providing you with connection to the Platform. The Company shall not be responsible for losses or delays caused by any such service provider as a result of
non-performance or breakdown in operation.
13.2. The Client shall follow all instructions, procedures and terms contained herein and any document provided by the Company concerning the use of the Platform.
13.3. You agree and acknowledge that you shall be solely responsible for the safe custody and proper use of your Equipment and for keeping your Company USSD loan subscription pin (OTP) secret and secure. The Company shall not be liable for any disclosure of your USSD loan subscription pin (OTP) to any third party and you hereby agree to indemnify and hold the Company harmless from any losses resulting from any such disclosure or failure to have the Equipment in safe custody.
13.4. You shall take all reasonable precautions to detect any unauthorized use of the Platform. To that end, you shall ensure that all communications from the Company are examined and checked by you or on your behalf as soon as
practicable after receipt by you in such a way that any unauthorized use of and access to the System will be detected.
13.5. You shall immediately inform the Company through the Client Care Centre within a period of 24 hours in the event that;
13.5.1. You have reason to believe that your USSD loan subscription pin (OTP) is or may be known to any person not authorized to know the same
and/or has been compromised; and/or
13.5.2. You have reason to believe that unauthorized use of the Platform has or may have occurred or could occur and a transaction may have been
fraudulently input or compromised.
13.6. You shall at all times follow the security procedures notified to you by the Company from time to time or such other procedures as may be applicable to the Services from time to time. You acknowledge that any failure on your part to follow the recommended security procedures may result in a breach of your “Top-up Loan” Account’s confidentiality. In particular, you shall ensure that the Platform is not used, or requests are not issued, or the relevant functions are not performed by anyone other than a person authorized to do so.
13.7. You shall not at any time operate or use the Platform in any manner that may be prejudicial to the Company.
14.Exclusion of liability
14.1. The Company shall not be responsible for any loss suffered by you should the Platform be interfered with or be unavailable by reason of:
14.1.1. the failure of any of your Equipment, or
14.1.2. any other circumstances whatsoever not within the Company’s control including, without limitation, force majeure or error, interruption, delay or non- availability of the System, terrorist or any enemy action
equipment failure, loss of power, adverse weather or atmospheric
conditions, and failure of any public or private telecommunications
system.
14.1.3. The Company will not be liable for any losses or damage suffered by you as a result of or in connection with:-
14.1.4. failure, malfunction, interruption, or unavailability of the USSD System to support the Platform or defects of your Equipment;
14.1.5. the money in your “Top-up Loan” being subject to legal process or other encumbrance restricting payments or transfers thereof;
14.1.6. your failure to give proper or complete instructions for payments or transfers relating to your Account;
14.1.7. any fraudulent or illegal use of the Platform and/or your Equipment; 14.1.8. your failure to comply with these Terms and Conditions and any document or information provided by the Company concerning the
use of the System and the Services.
14.1.9. If for any reason other than a reason mentioned in subparagraphs 14.2.1 or 14.2.2, the USSD service Platform is interfered with or unavailable, the Company’s sole liability under this Agreement in respect thereof shall
be to re-establish the USSD service Platform as soon as reasonably
practicable.
14.1.10. Save as provided in subparagraph 14.2.2 the Company shall not be liable to you for any interference with or unavailability of the USSD service
Platform , however caused.
14.1.11. Under no circumstances shall the Company be liable to you for any loss of profit or anticipated cost savings or for any indirect or consequential loss or damage of whatever kind, however caused, arising out of or in
connection with the Platform even where the possibility of such loss or damage is notified to the Company.
14.1.12. All warranties and obligations implied by law are hereby excluded to the fullest extent permitted by law.
15. Intellectual property rights
You acknowledge that the intellectual property rights in the System (and any amendments, upgrades or enhancements thereto from time to time) and all associated documentation that the Company provides to you through the USSD service Platform or otherwise are vested either in the Company or in other persons from whom the Company has a right to use and to sub-license the System and/or the said documentation. You shall not infringe any such intellectual property rights. You shall not duplicate, reproduce or in any way tamper with the Platform and associated documentation without the prior written consent of the Company.
16. Indemnity
In consideration of the Company complying with your instructions or Requests in relation to the Account, you undertake to indemnify the Company and hold it harmless against any loss, charge, damage, expense, fee or claim which the Company suffers or incurs or sustains thereby and you absolve the Company from all liability for loss or damage which you may sustain from the Company acting on your instructions or requests or in accordance with these Terms and Conditions.
The indemnity in clause 16 shall also cover the following;
16.1. All demands, claims, actions, losses and damages of whatever nature which may be brought against the Company or which it may suffer or incur arising from its acting or not acting on any Request or arising from the malfunction or failure or unavailability of any hardware, software, or equipment, the loss or destruction of any data, power failures, corruption of storage media, natural phenomena, Pandemic, riots, acts of vandalism, sabotage, terrorism, any other event beyond the Company’s control, interruption or distortion of communication links or arising from reliance on any person or any incorrect, illegible, incomplete or inaccurate information or data contained in any request received by the Company.
16.2. Any loss or damage that may arise from your use, misuse, abuse or possession of any third-party software, including without limitation, any operating system, browser software or any other software packages or programs.
16.3. Any unauthorized access to your Account or any breach of security or any destruction or accessing of your data or any destruction or theft of or damage to any of your Equipment.
16.4. Any loss or damage occasioned by the failure by you to adhere to these Terms and Conditions and/or by supplying of incorrect information or loss or damage occasioned by the failure or unavailability of third party facilities or systems or the inability of a third party to process a transaction or any loss which may be incurred by the Company as a consequence of any breach by these Terms and Conditions.
16.5. Any damages and costs payable to the Company in respect of any claims against the Company for recompense for loss where the particular circumstance is within your control.
17. Variation and termination of relationship
17.1. The Company may at any time, upon notice to you, terminate or vary its business relationship with you and in particular but without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing the Company may cancel credits which it has granted and require the repayment of outstanding debts resulting therefrom within such time as the Company may determine, in accordance with the applicable laws.
17.2. Without prejudice to the Company rights under clause 13.1, Company may at its sole discretion suspend or close your “Top-up Loan”;
17.2.1. if you use the “Top-up Loan” for unauthorized purposes or where the Company detects any abuse/misuse, breach of content, fraud or
attempted fraud relating to your use of the Services;
17.2.2. if your TUGENDE (U) USSD loan subscription or agreement with telecom company is terminated for whatever reason;
17.2.3. if the Company is required or requested to comply with an order or instruction of or a recommendation from the government, court,
regulator or other competent authority;
17.2.4. if Company reasonably suspects or believes that you are in breach of these Terms and Conditions (including non-payment of any Loan
amount due from you where applicable);
17.2.5. where such a suspension or variation is necessary as a consequence of technical problems or for reasons of safety;
17.2.6. to facilitate update or upgrade the contents or functionality of the Services from time to time;
17.2.7. where you remain inactive for any period of time determined by the Company in its reasonable discretion;
17.2.8. If the Company decides to suspend or cease the provision of the Services for commercial reasons or for any other reason as it may
determine in its absolute discretion.
18. Disclosure of information
You hereby expressly consent and authorize Company to disclose your personal information, information or data relating to your Account and any details of your use of the Platform:
● to and from any local or international law enforcement or competent regulatory or governmental agencies so as to assist in the prevention,
detection, investigation or prosecution of criminal activities or fraud;
● to a Credit Reference Bureau;
● to the Company’s lawyers, auditors or other professional advisors or to any court or arbitration tribunal in connection with any legal or audit
proceedings;
● in business practices including but not limited to quality control,
training and ensuring effective systems operation.
● Under this Agreement, the Client waives any right or claim that it may make to the Company and its partners regarding the disclosure of the above information as long as it is in compliance with the Data
Protection laws of Uganda.
19. Miscellaneous
19.1. These Terms and Conditions (as may be amended from time to time) form a legally binding agreement binding on you and your personal successors. 19.2. This Agreement and any rights or liabilities accruing thereunder may not be assigned by you to any other person.
19.3. Company may vary or amend at any time and without notice to you these Terms and Conditions and the Transaction Fees. Any such variations or amendments may be published on the Company website and/or by any other means as determined by the Company and any such variations and
amendments shall take effect immediately upon publication.
19.4. No failure or delay by either yourself or the Company in exercising any right or remedy hereunder shall operate as a waiver thereof, nor shall any single or partial exercise of any right or remedy prevent any further or other exercise thereof or the exercise of any other right or remedy.
19.5. The rights and remedies herein provided are cumulative and not exclusive of any rights or remedies provided by law.
19.6. If any provision of these Terms and Conditions shall be found by any duly appointed arbitrator, court or administrative body of competent jurisdiction to be invalid or unenforceable the invalidity or unenforceability of such provision shall not affect the other provisions herein.
19.7. Any addition or alteration to these Terms and Conditions may be made from time to time by the Company and of which notice has been given to you by way of publication as provided in subparagraph 19.3 shall be binding upon you as fully as if the same were contained in these Terms and Conditions.
20. Notices
20.1. The Company may send information concerning the Top-up Loan via SMS to the Mobile Phone number associated with your Account or loan subscription. 20.2. All notices and communications to the Company should be made to your respective Client Care Centre.
20.3. You acknowledge that you have no claim against the Company for damages resulting from losses, delays, misunderstandings, mutilations, duplications, or any other irregularities due to transmission of any of the communication referred to herein.
21 Dispute resolution, jurisdiction and arbitration
21.1 You may contact the Client Care Centre to report any disputes, claims or Top-up Loan or Account discrepancies.
21.2 Any dispute arising out of or in connection with these terms and conditions that are not resolved by the Company shall be referred to arbitration by a single arbitrator to
be appointed by agreement between the parties or in default of such agreement within 60 days of the notification of a dispute, upon the application of either party, by the Chairman of the Centre for Arbitration and Dispute Resolution who shall be the final appointing authority.
21.3 Such arbitration shall be conducted in the English language in Kampala in the Republic of Uganda under the provisions of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, Cap 4 as amended from time to time.
21.4 To the extent permissible by Law, the determination of the Arbitrator shall be final, conclusive and binding upon the parties hereto.
21.5 This Agreement shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the Republic of Uganda.
22 Incoherence of terms
In the event of any inconsistency between these Terms and Conditions and any particular terms of the Client’s USSD menus, these terms and conditions shall prevail.