Terms of service

1Who these terms are between

These terms are an agreement between Horizon Vikoba (“we”, “us”) and the savings group that opens an account, together with every person that group gives a login to. Using Horizon Vikoba means accepting them.

Where a term applies to the group as a whole it says the group; where it applies to one person it says you.

2What we provide

Horizon Vikoba is software for recording the affairs of a savings group: members and the offices they hold, Hisa and Jamii contributions, loans and their approval, repayments, the cash book, and the year-end share-out. It produces the reports described on the features page.

We are not a bank, a lender, or a payment service. No money passes through Horizon Vikoba. The app records what the group has decided and what the group has collected; the money itself stays wherever the group keeps it. We do not hold funds, transfer them, or take a share of them.

We do not give financial, legal or accounting advice. The figures the app produces are worked out from what the group entered, and the group remains responsible for what it entered and for what it decides on the strength of it.

3Accounts and offices

A group is opened with a chairperson, who can then appoint an accountant and a secretary. Those three offices carry the powers set out on the features page, including approving loans.

• You are responsible for keeping your password to yourself. Tell your secretary at once if you think somebody else has it.
• One login may belong to several groups. The office you hold is recorded against each membership, not against you, so it does not follow you between groups.
• The group is responsible for who it admits, what office it gives them, and for removing access when somebody leaves.

4The group's records are the group's

Everything a group enters — members, contributions, loans, repayments, the cash book, its reports — belongs to that group. We claim no ownership of it and we do not sell it, share it, or use it to train anything.

A group may ask for an export of its records at any time, and may ask us to delete them. See the privacy policy for how long anything survives a deletion request.

We access a group’s records only to run and repair the service, or when the group asks us to. Where that means looking at a group’s screens we do it by impersonating one of the group’s own officers, which puts a banner on every screen and writes an entry into that group’s own audit log — so the group can see that it happened.

5Acceptable use

You agree not to:

• use Horizon Vikoba to record or facilitate anything unlawful;
• enter another person’s details without a basis for doing so, or upload a photograph of somebody who has not agreed to it;
• try to reach records belonging to a group you are not a member of, or to defeat the checks that keep groups apart;
• probe, load-test or interfere with the service, or attempt to disrupt it for other groups.

We may suspend an account that is doing any of these, and will tell the group why.

6Availability and changes

We work to keep Horizon Vikoba available, but we do not promise it will never be interrupted. Maintenance, a failure at a hosting provider, or a network problem can all take it offline for a period.

We add to and change the app over time. We will not remove a feature a group depends on without telling the group first. Where a change alters these terms materially, we will say so before it takes effect and update the date at the top of this page.

7Fees

Where a group is charged for Horizon Vikoba, the amount, the currency and the due date are set out on the invoice raised for that group. Invoices are numbered, and an issued invoice is cancelled by voiding it rather than deleting it, so the record stays complete.

Fees are for running the platform. They are separate from, and never drawn from, the money the group’s own members contribute.

8Liability

Horizon Vikoba is provided as it is. To the extent the law allows, we are not liable for loss of profit, loss of expected savings, or indirect or consequential loss arising from using it — including a decision the group made on the strength of a figure it entered.

Nothing in these terms limits liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, for fraud, or for anything else that cannot lawfully be limited.

9Ending the agreement

A group may stop using Horizon Vikoba at any time and ask for its records to be exported and deleted. We may end an account for a serious or repeated breach of these terms, and we will give the group a reasonable chance to put things right first unless the breach makes that inappropriate.

If an account ends, the group may ask for an export of its records for 30 days afterwards.

10Governing law

These terms are governed by the law of the United Republic of Tanzania, and its courts have jurisdiction over any dispute arising from them.

11How to reach us

Write to info@horizonvikoba.com, or use the contact page. We answer within two working days.