Terms of Use

1. What Kotiza is

Kotiza is a tool for keeping track of tontines (savings circles). It is used to record who has contributed, who still has to contribute, and who has received the pot. It replaces the organizer's notebook.

Kotiza is provided as is, to the extent permitted by law, for use among people who know and trust each other.

2. What Kotiza is not

Kotiza never holds your money. Tontine money never passes through the app or through its accounts. It moves directly between the members and the organizer, as before.

Kotiza is not a bank, a payment institution, or a money transfer service. Kotiza is not a party to your tontine, does not guarantee it, and takes no part in any agreement between its members.

Kotiza records what you enter in it. A contribution marked as paid in the app means that someone reported it as paid. It does not mean that a payment was verified.

3. Your account

You sign in with your phone number and a one-time code. This code counts as your signature: do not share it with anyone, not even a person who claims to be part of Kotiza. We never ask for it.

You are responsible for the use of your account as long as you keep control of your phone line. If you lose your number, tell us without delay.

4. If you organize a tontine

You enter the names and phone numbers of people who may not have opened the app. You must first make sure that they agree to be listed in it, and you must be able to explain to them why they receive a message from Kotiza.

You are responsible for the accuracy of what you record. The payments, late payments, and payout order that you enter count as proof for your group: Kotiza does not verify them.

Reminders are sent in your name. Do not overuse them: a reminder is meant to inform people, and it is not a way to put pressure on them.

5. If you are a member

You can see your contributions, your turn, and your group's payout order. You cannot change any of it: only the organizer keeps the ledger, as in a tontine kept in a notebook.

To correct a mistake, contact your organizer. Kotiza cannot settle a disagreement about a payment, because Kotiza did not see the money or see it being handed over.

6. Subscription and billing

Members pay nothing to Kotiza. If you organize tontines, you pay one subscription, no matter how many tontines you have. There are three plans: Circle, Network, and Movement. The Pricing page shows their monthly prices and limits. Displayed prices include taxes.

Your currency is set when you open your account, based on the country code of your phone number, and it does not change after that. A number from Senegal, Mali, Côte d'Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Niger, Togo, Benin, or Guinea-Bissau pays in CFA francs. A number from a European country that uses the euro pays in euros, a Canadian number pays in Canadian dollars, and all other numbers pay in US dollars.

In CFA francs, the subscription is sold by Ascend International Professional Service SUARL. You pay it with Wave or Orange Money, to the number shown in the app. We confirm your payment within 1 business day, and the date of that confirmation is the one that counts: send your payment a few days before the due date. The subscription does not renew automatically. We notify you 7 days before the due date, then again the day before.

In CFA francs, you choose how much time you pay for at once: one month, three months, or one year. Three months are three full months. One year is billed as ten months: two months are free. The price is the one shown when you open your payment request: it is written on that request and does not change afterwards, even if our prices change before you pay.

In euros or dollars, you pay on the Paddle.com payment page, by card or by another method offered on that page. Our order process is conducted by our online reseller Paddle.com. Paddle.com is the Merchant of Record for all these orders: you buy the subscription from Paddle, and Ascend Intelligences LLC provides the service to you. Paddle collects the payment, sends you the receipt by email, and appears on your statement. Paddle's purchase terms apply in addition to these terms.

In euros or dollars, the subscription renews automatically every month, until you stop it. At each renewal, Paddle charges the monthly price of your plan to your saved payment method. You can stop it at any time, online, with the link in the receipt that Paddle sends you by email, or by writing to us at contact@getkotiza.com. Stopping takes effect at the end of the month you have already paid for, and nothing more is charged after that. If the price of your plan changes, you are notified before the renewal it affects.

In euros or dollars, you can change plans during the month. If the new plan costs more, Paddle immediately charges the difference for the remaining days, and the new plan applies as soon as that payment is accepted. If it costs less, nothing is charged: the difference is kept as credit and deducted from your next payments. The renewal date does not change.

In CFA francs, you can move to a more expensive plan before your due date. You then pay the difference for the whole months that remain: the number of those months, multiplied by the gap between the monthly price of the new plan and the monthly price of your current plan. Your due date does not change, and no month is added. If less than one whole month remains, the change happens at renewal. This amount is worked out on the day you open the request, and it holds as long as the same number of whole months remains; the request tells you until which date. After that date, go back to your subscription to get a new one. To move to a cheaper plan before your due date, write to us: that means a refund, and we handle it by hand.

If you do not pay on time, here is what happens for a due date of March 1. Through March 8, nothing changes. On March 9, your account moves to the Circle plan: you keep your tontines and your members, and only additions beyond the limits of that plan are refused. On April 1, automatic and manual reminders stop, and you can no longer create a tontine or add a member. You can still view your tontines, record the payments you receive, and export the ledger.

In CFA francs, a payment confirmed before April 1 adds the time you paid for to your due date. For one month, confirmed on March 25, it covers until April 1; for one year, until March 1 of the following year. Confirmed on or after April 1, the time you paid for starts on the day of confirmation: one month confirmed on April 10 covers until May 10. In euros or dollars, the paid period runs until the next charge date set by Paddle.

The subscription pays for software: the ledger of your tontines and the due date reminders sent by SMS or WhatsApp to the members of your groups. Kotiza sends no advertising messages, does not transfer money, and never bills for or collects tontine contributions. Refunds follow our Refund Policy, published on this site.

7. Availability

We do what is needed to keep Kotiza available, without guaranteeing uninterrupted service. The app may be unavailable because of maintenance, a service provider outage, or a network outage.

A reminder may not arrive: SMS and WhatsApp messages depend on the carriers. Do not rely on Kotiza as the only way to tell a member about an important due date.

8. Liability

Kotiza is not responsible for amounts owed between members, for a member who stops contributing, for a disputed payout order, or for a tontine that stops. These situations are a matter for your group.

We cannot be held liable for the consequences of incorrect data entered by a user.

9. Ending your use

You can stop using Kotiza at any time. When the organizer deletes a tontine, it disappears from the app, for the organizer and for its members, and the organizer cannot restore it on their own. Its ledger is kept for 12 months, then permanently erased. Until then, it stays in our databases, so it can be recovered if the deletion was a mistake. It can be erased sooner on request, as stated in the Privacy Policy.

We may suspend an account that is used to harass other people, or for clearly fraudulent activity.

10. Changes to these terms

These terms may change. The date of the last update appears at the bottom of this page. If we make an important change, we will tell you in the app.

11. Governing law

These terms are governed by the law of Senegal. If you use Kotiza for personal purposes and live outside Senegal, you keep the protection that the law of your country gives you: nothing in these terms limits your rights as a consumer. A purchase in euros or dollars is also governed by Paddle's purchase terms.

If there is a disagreement, we favor an amicable solution before any other course of action.

Legal notice

Publisher:

Ascend International Professional Service SUARL

RCCM:

SN.DKR.2024.B.30459

NINEA:

011403467

Registered office:

SICAP Dieuppeul 02, Villa n° 2458-D, Dakar, Sénégal

Publication director:

Madogal Tall

Sales in euros and dollars:

Paddle.com, our reseller and Merchant of Record; service provided by Ascend Intelligences LLC, registered in Maryland (United States) under No. W27302025

Contact:

contact@getkotiza.com