Terms of Use

1. Agreeing to these terms

These terms apply when you use Ekub, an app made by Nivaro ("we", "us"). By signing in, you agree to them and to our Privacy Policy. If you don't agree, please don't use Ekub.

2. What Ekub does and doesn't do

Ekub helps a group run a rotating savings group: setting the rules, recording contributions and payouts, choosing each round's recipient, keeping a shared history, and sharing the group's status.

• Ekub keeps records only. We never receive, hold, move or guarantee anyone's money. Payments happen outside the app, between members.
• Ekub is not a bank, a payment service, a lender or an insurer, and it doesn't give financial advice.
• A record in Ekub shows what the group's admin or co-admin entered. It is not proof from a bank or mobile-money provider that a payment happened.

3. Who can use Ekub

You must be 18 or over, and you need an Ethiopian mobile number that can receive SMS.

4. Your account

You sign in with a one-time code sent by SMS. Keep your phone and SIM card secure: anyone who can receive SMS on your number can sign in as you. You are responsible for what is done with your account. Use your real name so that other members can recognise you.

5. Admins and co-admins

The person who creates a group is its admin. The admin can make other members co-admins and can hand the group over to someone else. If you are an admin or co-admin, you agree to:

• record contributions and payouts accurately, and confirm a payment only when you know it was received;
• add only people who have agreed to join the group and to have their details recorded;
• run the group according to the rules its members agreed;
• give honest reasons for corrections, exceptions, approvals and overrides. Everyone in the group can see them, together with who acted and when.

Some actions need a second admin's approval. If the group has no other admin or co-admin, the admin can apply the action straight away, and it is shown to every member as an override.

6. Members

Check your own records in the app and tell your admin quickly if something looks wrong. Only an admin or co-admin can record or correct payments.

7. Group rules and disagreements

A group's rules are an agreement between its members. Ekub records them, but we are not a party to that agreement.

• Until a group is activated, its admin can change the rules. Activating locks them as version 1.
• After that, a rule change needs approval (or a visible override), applies only from the next round, and is kept as a new version.
• Each recipient is chosen according to the group's rules: a fixed order, a random draw run on our servers, or a choice approved by an admin. The members eligible for a draw are fixed before it runs, and the result is recorded.

Members are responsible for paying what they owe and for settling disagreements among themselves. Ekub's history can help, but we don't decide disputes, enforce payments or pay out on anyone's behalf.

8. Records and corrections

Money records are never edited or deleted. A mistake is fixed with a correction: a reversal of the original entry and, if needed, a replacement, with the reason. Changes to a round whose recipient has been chosen, which has been paid out, or which is closed need approval. Because the history is shared by the whole group, these records stay even if a member leaves or deletes their account.

9. Working offline

Changes you make without a connection are saved on your phone and sent when you're back online. If the group changed in the meantime, or the change is no longer allowed, it is not applied automatically: the app shows you what happened and asks you to decide. Changes that are still on your phone can be lost if you uninstall the app, clear its data or lose the phone before they are sent.

10. Sharing

You are responsible for who you share group information with, whether through WhatsApp, SMS reminders sent from your phone, or a status link. Shared messages and status pages leave out phone numbers and payment references, but they do show names and payment statuses. Share them only with people the group is happy to have see them.

11. Acceptable use

You must not:

• break the law, or use Ekub to deceive or defraud anyone, including members of your own group;
• record payments you know are false, or add people without their agreement;
• try to get into accounts or groups you don't belong to, or interfere with how Ekub works;
• send large numbers of sign-in codes, or use automated tools against the service.

12. Your content

You and your group keep ownership of the information you put into Ekub. You allow us to store, process, display and share it as needed to provide the service, as described in our Privacy Policy.

13. Cost

Ekub is currently free to use. Your mobile carrier may charge for data, and for SMS reminders you send from your phone. If we introduce charges, we will tell you in advance.

14. Suspension and closing your account

You can stop using Ekub at any time, and you can close your account in the app (Profile → Close account) or at https://ekub.nivaro.me/account/delete. If you are the admin of a running group, you must first make someone else its admin; if nobody else in that group uses the app, the group is frozen instead: its records are kept and nothing more can be recorded. We may suspend or close an account that breaks these terms or puts other users at risk. Where we can, we will tell you first and keep the group's shared records available to its other members.

15. Disclaimers

We work to keep Ekub accurate and available, but it is provided "as is" and "as available". We don't promise that it will always work without interruption or errors.

16. Limitation of liability

As far as the law allows, we are not responsible for:

• money that members owe, pay, lose or don't pay to each other;
• records entered wrongly by users;
• decisions made by a group or its admins;
• indirect or consequential losses.

Nothing in these terms limits rights you have under law that cannot be excluded.

17. Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia.

18. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms. If the changes are important, we will tell you in the app before they take effect. If you keep using Ekub after that, you accept the updated terms.

19. Contact

For questions about these terms, call Ekub support using the number on the app's sign-in screen.