Terms and Conditions

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This agreement became effective from May 29, 2015

This User Agreement (this “Agreement”) explains the terms under which you are allowed to use the nigeriaskills.com and any web or mobile services or applications (collectively, the “Site”) offered by nigeriaskills.com.

nigeriaskills.com is owned by Contem Media Solutions, a Business Solutions Company in Nigeria and Escrow services offered are complimentary to Contem Media Solutions and any other third party involved in the delivery.

Your use of the Site after the effective date will signify that you have read, understand, accept, and agreed to be bound and are bound by this Agreement for yourself and on behalf of any Member for whom you use the Site, and you represent that you have the authority to do so.  To the extent permitted by applicable law, we may modify this Agreement with prospective effect without prior notice to you, and any revisions to this Agreement will take effect when posted on the Site, unless a later date is otherwise stated in the revised Agreement.  Please check the Site often for updates.

These terms and conditions form part of the Agreement between the Client (Employer, Freelancer or general user) and ourselves. Your accessing of this website and/or undertaking of a service or Agreement indicates your understanding, agreement to and acceptance, of the Disclaimer Notice, Privacy Policy and the full Terms and Conditions contained herein. Your statutory Consumer Rights are unaffected.

The following terminology applies to these Terms and Conditions, Privacy Statement and Disclaimer Notice and any or all Agreements: “Employer“, “Freelancer”, “Client“, “You” and “Your” refers to you, the person accessing this website and accepting our terms and conditions.

Nigeria Skills“, “Ourselves”, “We” and “Us“, refers to our Company. “Party”, “Parties”, or “Us”, refers to both the Client and ourselves, or either the Client or ourselves.

All terms refer to the offer, acceptance and consideration of payment necessary to the use of our website and services, as well as third party services offered by partner, or any other means, for the express purpose of meeting the Client’s needs in respect of provision of our stated services/products, in accordance with and subject to, prevailing Nigerian Law. Any use of the above terminology or other words in the singular, plural, capitalisation and/or he/she or they, are taken as interchangeable and therefore as referring to same.

Other terminologies:

“Account” means the account you open when you register on the Website.

“Employer” means a User that investigates and purchases Freelancer Services or items from Freelancers or identifies a Freelancer through the Website.

“Freelancer”, means a user who renders services to be paid by Employers through the Website.

“Contest” means a contest that is solely promoted by an Employer and in respect of which a Freelancer can submit an entry via the Website.

“Contest Brief” means the document setting out the terms and conditions which are to apply to a Contest.

“Contest Handover”, in respect of a Contest, means the agreement between the Employer and winning Freelancer under which the Freelancer will transfer to the Employer ownership of the winning entry.

“Dispute Resolution Process” means the process to be followed by Employers and Freelancers in accordance with the Dispute Resolution Services.

“Entrant” means an eligible Freelancer who has entered into a Contest.

“Inactive Account” means a User Account that has not been logged into for a continuous 6 month period.

“Intellectual Property Rights” means any and all intellectual property rights, existing worldwide and the subject matter of such rights, including: (a) patents, copyright, rights in circuit layouts (or similar rights), registered designs, registered and unregistered trademarks, and any right to have confidential information kept confidential; and (b) any application or right to apply for registration of any of the rights referred to in paragraph (a), whether or not such rights are registered or capable of being registered and whether existing under any laws, at common law or in equity.

“Local Jobs” means a service we provide to match an Employer who has tasks that need doing with a Freelancer who will provide the service based on the location of the Employer.

“Payment” means a prepayment made by the Employer for the provision of Freelancer Services under a User Contract and which will be released in accordance with the section “Payments” below.

“Project” or “Listing” means a job offered or awarded by an Employer via the Website, which may include a Project or Contest listed by an Employer, a project awarded by an Employer, a service bought by an Employer from a Freelancer, and service awarded by an Employer to a Freelancer as a result of a Contest or competition hosted via the Website.

“Freelancer Services” means all services provided by Freelancers.

Users may provide a business name or a company name, which is to be associated with the User’s Account. Users acknowledge and agree that where a business name or company name is associated with their Account, this User Agreement is a contract with the User as an individual (not the business or company) and Users remain solely responsible for all activity undertaken in respect of their Account.

We may, at our absolute discretion, refuse to register a person or corporate entity as a User.

Using Nigeria Skills

While using the Nigeria Skills Website, you will not:

  • post content or items in inappropriate categories or areas on our websites and services;
  • infringe any laws, third party rights or our policies, such as the Code of Conduct;
  • fail to deliver payment for services delivered to you, unless the Freelancer has materially changed the Freelancer Service provided from the bid or a clear typographical error is made;
  • fail to deliver Freelancer Services purchased from you, unless the Employer fails to meet the terms, materially alters the terms of the Freelancer Services from the listing;
  • circumvent or manipulate our fee structure, the billing process, or fees owed to Nigeria Skills;
  • post false, inaccurate, misleading, defamatory or offensive content (including personal information);
  • take any action that may undermine the feedback or reputation systems (such as displaying, importing or exporting feedback information or using it for purposes unrelated to the Nigeria Skills Website);
  • transfer your Nigeria Skills account (including feedback) and Username to another party without our consent;
  • distribute or post spam, unsolicited, or bulk electronic communications, chain letters, or pyramid schemes;
  • distribute viruses or any other technologies that may harm Nigeria Skills, the Website, or the interests or property of Nigeria Skills users (including their Intellectual Property Rights, privacy and publicity rights) or is unlawful, threatening, abusive, defamatory, invasive of privacy, vulgar, obscene, profane or which may harass or cause distress or inconvenience to, or incite hatred of, any person;
  • download and aggregate listings from our website for display with listings from other websites without our express written permission, “frame”, “mirror” or otherwise incorporate any part of the Website into any other website without our prior written authorisation;
  • attempt to modify, translate, adapt, edit, decompile, disassemble, or reverse engineer any software programs used by us in connection with the Nigeria Skills Website;
  • copy, modify or distribute rights or content from the Nigeria Skills Website or Nigeria Skills’ copyrights and trademarks; or
  • harvest or otherwise collect information about Users, including email addresses, without their consent.

Cancellation Policy

Minimum 24 hours notice of cancellation required. Notification for instance, in person, via email, mobile phone ‘text message’, or any other means will be accepted subject to confirmation in writing.

Termination of Agreements and Refunds Policy

Both the Client and ourselves have the right to terminate any Services Agreement for any reason, including the ending of services that are already underway. No refunds shall be offered, where a Service is deemed to have begun and is, for all intents and purposes, underway. Any monies that have been paid to us which constitute payment in respect of the provision of unused Services, shall be refunded.

Disclaimer

Exclusions and Limitations
The information on this website is provided on an “as is” basis. To the fullest extent permitted by law, Nigeria Skills:

  • excludes all representations and warranties relating to our website and its contents or which is or may be provided by any affiliates or any other third party, including in relation to any inaccuracies or omissions in our website and/or Nigeria Skills literature; and
  • excludes all liability for damages arising out of or in connection with your use of our website. This includes, without limitation, direct loss, loss of business or profits (whether or not the loss of such profits was foreseeable, arose in the normal course of things or you have advised Nigeria Skills of the possibility of such potential loss), damage caused to your computer, computer software, systems and programs and the data thereon or any other direct or indirect, consequential and incidental damages.

Nigeria Skills does not however exclude liability for death or personal injury caused by its negligence. The above exclusions and limitations apply only to the extent permitted by law. None of your statutory rights as a consumer are affected.

Fees and Payment

Cash or Personal Cheque with Bank Card, all major Credit/Debit Cards, Bank Draft or Bank Transfer are all acceptable methods of payment. Our Terms are payment in full within thirty days. All payment of services a made and paid through our Escrow Services and payments will not be made to Freelancers until full satisfaction and approval from Employers. Payment made will be held secure and delivered to Freelancers according to services provided to Employers.

We charge fees for certain services, such as introduction fees for Projects, listing upgrades and memberships. When you use a service that has a fee, you have an opportunity to review and accept the fees that you will be charged based on our schedule of Fees, which we may change from time to time and will update you by placing on our Website. We may choose to temporarily change the fees for our services for promotional events (for example, discounts on memberships) or new services, and such changes are effective when we post the temporary promotional event or new service on the Websites.

Unless otherwise stated, all fees are quoted in Naira.

Taxes

You are responsible for paying any taxes, including any goods and services or value added taxes, which may be applicable depending on the jurisdiction of the services provided. These taxes will be added to fees billed to you, if applicable.

Payment Administration Agent

You acknowledge and agree that we may in our sole discretion, from time to time, appoint our related bodies corporate or a third party as our agent to accept or make payments (including merchant facilities) from or to Users on our behalf. Such a third party will have the same rights, powers and privileges that we have under this User Agreement and will be entitled to exercise or enforce their rights, powers and privileges as our agent or in their own name. In no event shall we be liable to any User for any loss, damage or liability resulting from the Payment Administration Agent’s negligence and/or acts beyond the authority given by Nigeria Skills.

Promotion

We may display your company or business name, logo, images or other media, and public description of your Projects and profile as part of the Nigeria Skills Services and/or other marketing materials relating to the Nigeria Skills Website, except where you have explicitly requested that we do not do this and we have agreed to such request.

Content

When you give us content, you grant us a non-exclusive, worldwide, perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free, sub licensable (through multiple tiers) right to exercise any and all copyright, trademark, publicity, and database rights (but no other rights) you have in the content, in any media known now or in the future.

You acknowledge and agree that: (1) we only act as a portal for the online distribution and publication of User content. We make no warranty that User content is actually made available on the Website. We have the right (but not the obligation) to take any action deemed appropriate by us with respect to your User content; (2) we have no responsibility or liability for the deletion or failure to store any content, whether or not the content was actually made available on the Website; and (3) any and all content submitted to the Website is subject to our approval. We may reject, approve or modify your User content at our sole discretion.

You represent and warrant that you are content:

  • will not infringe upon or misappropriate any copyright, patent, trademark, trade secret, or other intellectual property right or proprietary right or right of publicity or privacy of any person;
  • will not violate any law or regulation;
  • will not be defamatory or trade libellous;
  • will not be obscene or contain child pornography;
  • will not contain the development, design, manufacture or production of missiles, or nuclear, chemical or biological weapons
  • will not contain material linked to terrorist activities
  • will not include incomplete, false or inaccurate information about User or any other individual; and
  • will not contain any viruses or other computer programming routines that are intended to damage, detrimentally interfere with, surreptitiously intercept or expropriate any system, data or personal information.

You acknowledge and agree that we may transfer your personal information to a related body corporate and your information may be transferred outside of Nigeria. If you wish to withdraw your consent, you acknowledge and agree that we may be unable to provide you with access to the Website and Nigeria Skills Services and may close your Account.

Information on the Website may contain general information about legal, financial, health and other matters. The information is not advice, and should not be treated as such. You must not rely on the information on the Website as an alternative to professional advice. If you have specific questions about any matter you should consult your professional adviser.

We provide unmonitored access to third party content, including User feedback and articles with original content and opinions (or links to such third party content). We only act as a portal and have no liability based on, or related to, third party content on the Website, whether arising under the laws of copyright or other intellectual property, defamation, libel, privacy, obscenity, or any other legal discipline.

The Website may contain links to other third party websites. We do not control the websites to which we link from the Website. We do not endorse the content, products, services, practices, policies or performance of the websites we link to from the Website. Use of third party content, links to third party content and/or websites is at your risk.

Feedback, Reputation And Reviews

You acknowledge that you transfer copyright of the feedback, reputation and reviews you leave consisting of comments and a multidimensional rating (e.g. quality, communication etc.) together with a composite rating by us. You acknowledge that such feedback, reputation and reviews belong solely to us, notwithstanding that we permit you to use it on our Website while you remain a User. You must not use, or deal with, such feedback, reputation and reviews in any way inconsistent with our policies as posted on the Website from time to time without our prior written permission.

You may not do (or omit to do) anything that may undermine the integrity of the Nigeria Skills feedback system. We are entitled to suspend or terminate your Account at any time if we, in our sole and absolute discretion, are concerned by any feedback about you, or your feedback rating, where we believe our feedback system may be subverted.

Our feedback ratings belong to us and may not be used for any purpose other than facilitating the provision of Freelancer Services via the Website. You may not use your Freelancer or Employer feedback (including, but not limited to, marketing or exporting your any or all of your composite rating or feedback comments) in any real or virtual venue other than a website operated by Nigeria Skills or its related entities without our written permission.

Advertising

Unless otherwise agreed with us, you must not advertise an external website, product or service on the Website. Any website address posted on the Website, including in a listing, bid, listing description, clarification board or the message board, must relate to a project, contest, item listed, user or service being performed on the Website. An example of a permissible website address would be a portfolio of work.

We may display sponsor advertisements and promotions on the Website. You acknowledge and agree that we shall not be responsible for any loss or damage of any kind incurred by you as a result of the presence of such advertisements/ promotions in the Website or your subsequent dealings with the Advertisers. Furthermore, you acknowledge and agree that content of sponsor advertisements or promotions is protected by copyrights, trademarks, service marks, patents or other intellectual property or proprietary rights and laws. Unless expressly authorised by Freelancer or third party right holders, you agree not to modify, sell, distribute, appropriate or create derivative works based on such advertisement/promotions.

Communication With Other Users

You must not post your email address or other contact information on the Website, except in the “email” field of the signup form, at our request or as otherwise permitted by us on the Website.

Unless you have a prior relationship with a User, you must only communicate with Users via the Website, including by using the Project message board, inbox private messaging or chat facilities. Unless we provide a User’s contact information through a feature or function available through the Website, you must not, and must not attempt to, communicate with other Users in respect of Projects through any other means such as email, telephone, Skype, ICQ, AIM, MSN Messenger, GTalk and Yahoo.

Right To Review

We may read all correspondence posted to the Website and download or access, and test (if necessary), all uploaded files, programs and websites related to your use of the Website for the purpose of investigating fraud and for risk management and related purposes.

Customer Identity

You authorise us, directly or through third parties, to make any inquiries we consider necessary to validate your identity. You must, at our request: (1) provide further information to us, which may include your date of birth and other information that will allow us to reasonably identify you; (2) take steps to confirm ownership of your email address or financial instruments; or (3) verify your information against third party databases or through other sources.

You must also, at our request, provide copies of identification documents (such as your drivers’ licence). We may also ask you to provide photographic identification holding a sign with a code that we provide as an additional identity verification step.

We reserve the right to close, suspend, or limit access to your Account, the Website and/or Nigeria Skills Services in the event we are unable to obtain or verify to our satisfaction the information which we request under this section.

If you are not verified by us you may not be able to withdraw funds from your Nigeria Skills account, and other restrictions may apply. See the Customer Identity Verification Policy for more details.

User Services

Upon the Employer awarding a project or contest to the Freelancer, and the Freelancer’s acceptance on the Website, or the purchase of an item by a Buyer from the Seller, the Employer and Freelancer will be deemed to have entered into a User Contract under which the Employer agrees to purchase, and the Freelancer agrees to deliver the Freelancer Services. You agree not to enter into any contractual provisions in conflict with the User Agreement.

You are solely responsible for ensuring that you comply with your obligations to other Users. If you do not, you may become liable to that User. You must ensure that you are aware of any domestic laws (including common law), international laws, statutes, ordinances and regulations relevant to you as a Employer or Freelancer, or in any other uses you make of the Website.

If another User breaches any obligation to you, you are solely responsible for enforcing any rights that you may have. For the avoidance of doubt, we have no responsibility for enforcing any rights under a User Contract.

Depending on their jurisdiction, Freelancers and Employers may have rights under statutory warranties that cannot lawfully be excluded. Nothing in this User Agreement is intended to override a right that by applicable law may not be excluded.

Each User acknowledges and agrees that the relationship between Employers and Freelancers is that of an independent contractor. Nothing in this User Agreement creates a partnership, joint venture, agency or employment relationship between Users. Nothing in this User Agreement shall in any way be construed as forming a joint venture, partnership or an employer-employee relationship between Freelancer and the User.

Special provisions for Local Jobs

Each User acknowledges:

  • Nigeria Skills may from time to time include a map feature and Nigeria Skills may display the location of Users to persons browsing the Website on that map. Every Buyer seeking services for Local jobs will be asked to provide the location where the Local job is to be performed or the goods are to be delivered. A User must never disclose, in any Project posted, personal details such as the User’s name, street number, phone number or the email address in any Project description for a Local job or in any other public communication on the Nigeria Skills Website.
  • Once a Freelancer’s bid has been accepted by an Employer seeking Local job services or tasks then the Freelancer providing the service or task is obliged to complete the transaction, unless the service or task, goods or transaction is prohibited by law, by this Agreement or by any of our Policies.
  • If a Employer updates a Local job after it has been published on the Website, then all bids for that Local job made prior to the update will be automatically cancelled and the bidding process will restart. When a Freelancer has provided the goods or services or completed the task requested by a Employer seeking services for Local job, the User must log on to the Website and click the “Complete” button for that Local job. Failure to complete the service or task will constitute a breach of this User Agreement.
  • Our fees are applied to the amount of the awarded Freelancer’s bid to perform the services for the Local job. Any items purchased by the Seller as part of performing the service are between the Employer and Freelancer.

Funds

You may have funds in your Account if you have prepaid for fees or for services to be provided to you via the Website. If you are a Seller, you may have funds if you have successfully completed a Project, or sold an item, and funds have been released to you. There are also circumstances where funds will have been credited to your Account in relation to an affiliate program or a referral program.

Funds in your Account are held by us in our operating accounts held with reputable financial institutions. Funds in your Account are not held separately by us and may be commingled with our general operating funds and funds of other User’s Accounts.

You are not entitled to any interest, or other earnings for funds that are in your Account.

We may receive interest on funds held by us in our operating accounts (which may include funds in your Account) from financial institutions with whom we hold our operating accounts. Any such interest earned belongs to us and we will not be liable to any User for any imputed interest on such funds.

If your Account has a negative amount of funds, we may:

  • set-off the negative amount of funds with funds that you subsequently receive into your Account;
  • if you have funds in multiple currencies in your Account and one of the currencies becomes negative for any reason, we may set-off the negative amount against funds you maintain in a different currency balance (at an exchange rate applied by us);
  • reverse payments you have made from your Account to other User Accounts on the Website;
  • deduct amounts you owe us from money you subsequently add or receive into your Account; or
  • immediately suspend or limit your Account until such time as your Account no longer have a negative amount.

In the event that we offset a negative amount of funds pursuant to this section, it may be bundled with another debit coming out of your Account.

We reserve the right to collect any funds owed to us by any other legal means.

You acknowledge and agree that:

  • we are not a bank or other licensed financial institution and do not provide banking services or any financial services to you;
  • the funds shown in your Account (which may include Service Payments and/or any prepayment of fees which you owe to us) represents our unsecured obligations to you with respect to your rights to direct us to make payment in relation to the purchase and sale of Seller Services through the Website and provision of the Nigeria Skills Services;
  • to the extent that we are required to release funds from your Account to you, you will become our unsecured creditor until such funds are paid to you;
  • we are not acting as a trustee or fiduciary with respect to such funds or payments;
  • the amount of funds showing in your Account is not insured and is not a guaranteed deposit;
  • funds may only loaded into your Account, or released from your Account, by us and you must only use the mechanisms available on the Website to pay for, or receive funds in respect of Freelancer Services;
  • we will hold funds in respect of the amount of your Account (including Service Payments) in an account held by us with a financial institution (or in any manner that we decide in our sole discretion from time to time) and such funds are not segregated into a separate account; and
  • we may commingle your funds with funds of other User’s and our own funds and such commingled funds could be used to pay other Users or for our general corporate purposes or otherwise, however, we will remain obliged to release or refund funds at your direction in accordance with this User Agreement.

Limits & Fraud Prevention

We reserve the right to suspend a User withdrawal request if the source of the funds is suspected to be fraudulent.

If we become aware that any funds received into an Account from another Account as a result of a fraudulent transaction (e.g. paid a Service Payment using a stolen credit card) it will be reversed immediately. If those funds have already been released to you, you must pay the funds into your Account. If you do not do so, we may suspend, limit or cancel your account, or take action against you to recover those funds.

We may, in our sole discretion, place a limit on any or all of the funds in your Account (thereby preventing any use of the funds) if:

  • we believe there may be a high level of risk associated with you, your Account, or any or all of your transactions, including if we believe that there is a risk that such funds will be subject to reversal or chargeback;
  • we believe that the beneficiary of the payment is someone other than you;
  • we believe that the payment is being made to a country where we do not offer our Service; or
  • we are required to do so by law.

If you are involved in a dispute, we may (in certain circumstances) place a temporary limit on the funds in your Account to cover the amount of any potential liability. If the dispute is resolved in your favour, we will lift the limit on your funds and those funds may be released to you. If the dispute is not resolved in your favour, we may remove the funds from your Account.

Refunds

You may ask for a refund at any time for any funds that you have paid into your Account except if the amount to refund relates to a Service Payment or relates to fees payable to us.

If the amount the User has asked to refund relates to: (1) a Service Payment, the Dispute Resolution Process may be followed; or (2) our fees, the process set out in the Clause “Disputes with Us” must be followed.

If we agree to the refund, the funds will be received by the User via the same payment method(s) that the User used to make the original payment to us. We may, in our sole discretion, use an alternative payment method in exceptional circumstances.

We may refund funds to Users irrespective of whether a User has requested funds be refunded if: (1) we are required by law or consider that we are required by law to do so; (2) we determine that refunding funds to the User will avoid any dispute or an increase in our costs; (3) we refund funds to the User in accordance with any refund policy specified by us from time to time; (4) we find out that the original payment made by the User is fraudulent; (5) the User made a duplicate payment in error; or (6) we consider, in our sole opinion, that it is likely that the refund of funds is necessary to avoid a credit card chargeback.

You can request a refund by emailing us at [email protected]. If you have done so, you must not initiate a chargeback request with your credit card issuer until such time as all reasonable efforts have been exhausted with us to resolve your request.

If you have already initiated a chargeback request with your credit card issuer, you must not request a refund of funds by contacting us and must not seek double recovery.

If we reasonably determine, having considered all the relevant circumstances, that you have made an excessive or unreasonable number of requests to refund funds back to you or chargebacks, we may suspend, limit or close your Account.

There is no minimum amount for a refund.

Withdrawals

Your first withdrawal of funds earned will be delayed for fifteen days for security and fraud purposes.

Subsequent withdrawals may be delayed for up to fifteen days where our fraud prevention policies dictate that a delay is required.

We impose a minimum withdrawal amount for funds earned. This is set out in our schedule of Fees.

We may require you to be Freelancer Verified before you can withdraw funds from your Freelancer account, irrespective of whether or not a delay has been enforced. For details of how to become verified please read the Customer Identity Verification Policy.

You acknowledge and agree that we may seek to verify your identity or request additional information from you as part of our anti-fraud and Know Your Customer policy, as outlined in the section on “Customer Identity” in this agreement. For more information see the Customer Identity Verification Policy.

Chargebacks

A chargeback (being a challenge to a payment that an Employer files directly with their credit card issuer) and a reversal instruction is made by the payment product issuer or third parties (such as payment processors) and not by us. We are bound to follow their instructions.

You acknowledge and agree that we will be entitled to recover chargebacks and reversals that may be imposed on us by a payment product issuer or third parties (such as payment processors) on funds paid to you by Employers through the Website.

You agree that we may reverse any such payments made to you, which are subject to chargeback or reversal instruction via your payment product issuer or third parties (such as payment processors).

Inactive Accounts

User Accounts that have not been logged into for a continuous period will incur a maintenance fee per month, until either the account is closed or reactivated, for storage, bandwidth, support and management costs of providing hosting of the User’s profile, portfolio storage, listing in directories, promotion of your profile on the website and elsewhere, file storage, message transmission and message storage.

The length of the continuous period and the amount of the maintenance fee is set out in our schedule of Fees.

We reserve the right to close an Inactive Account.

We also reserve the right to close an account with nil or negative funds.

Right To Refuse Service

We may close, suspend or limit your access to your Account without reason. Without limiting the foregoing, we may close, suspend or limit your access to your Account:

  • if we determine that you have breached, or are acting in breach of, this User Agreement;
  • if you under-bid on any Project in an attempt to renegotiate the actual price privately, avoiding fees;
  • if we determine that you have breached legal liabilities (actual or potential), including infringing someone else’s Intellectual Property Rights;
  • if we determine that you have engaged, or are engaging, in fraudulent, or illegal activities;
  • you do not respond to account verification requests;
  • you do not complete account verification when requested within 3 months of the date of request;
  • you are the subject of a Nigerian sanctions, or our banking and payment relationships otherwise preclude us from conducting business with you;
  • to manage any risk of loss to us, a User, or any other person; or
  • for other similar reasons.

If we close your Account due to your breach of this User Agreement, you may also become liable for certain fees as described in this User Agreement.

Without limiting our other remedies, to the extent you have breached this User Agreement, you must pay us all fees owed to us and reimburse us for all losses and costs (including any and all of our employee time) and reasonable expenses (including legal fees) related to investigating such breach and collecting such fees.

You acknowledge and agree that: (1) the damages that we will sustain as a result of your breach of this User Agreement will be substantial and will potentially include (without limitation) fines and other related expenses imposed on us by our payment processors and Users and that those damages may be extremely difficult and impracticable to ascertain; (2) if you breach this User Agreement, we may fine you up to N500,000.00 for each breach and/or we may take legal action against you to recover losses that are in excess of the fine amount; (3) a fine of up to N500,000.00 is a presently reasonable pre-estimate or minimum estimate of our damages, considering all currently existing circumstances, including (without limitation) the relationship of the sum to the range of harm to us that reasonably could be anticipated and the anticipation that proof of actual damages may be impractical or extremely difficult; and (4) we may release the entire (or part of the) amount of the fine from your Account to us.

If we close your Account for a reason other than as a result of your breach of this User Agreement, unless as otherwise specified in this User Agreement, you will be entitled to receive any payment due from us to you.

In the event that we close your Account, you will have no claim whatsoever against us in respect of any such suspension or termination of your Account.

Service Payments

We operate an escrow service and as a result it provides a service a means to control payments to be made with respect to a service.

Subject to the User Contract, the Employer can make a Service Payment, which will be locked from the Employer’s Account and cannot be claimed by the Freelancer until:

  • the Employer and Freelancer agree that the funds can be claimed by the Freelancer;
  • if there is a dispute, the Employer and Freelancer have concluded the Dispute Resolution Process and the Dispute is resolved in the Freelancer’s favour;
  • the Employer instructs us to pay a Freelancer for services performed by the Freelancer in respect of a project or contest; or
  • the Employer acknowledges that the Freelancer has completed the services fully and satisfactory.

If an Employer does not approve of the Freelancer’s work product, the parties may elect to resolve the issue under the Dispute Resolution Process.

If we have not received any instructions from an Employer in respect of a Service Payment within twelve months after the day that the Service Payment was paid and the Employer has not logged into their Account during that time, the Service Payment will be unlocked and released back to the Employer.

Service Dispute Resolution Services

Nigeria Skills offers the Service Dispute Resolution Services to Users who have elected to use the Service Payment feature. You agree and acknowledge that:

(i) Nigeria Skills is not providing legal services;

(ii) Nigeria Skills will not advise you regarding any legal matters; and

(iii) if you desire to have legal counsel, you will seek an independent legal counsel from those licensed to practice law in your jurisdiction. You will not rely on Nigeria Skills for any such counsel.

In the event of a dispute between an Employer and a Freelancer regarding a return or release of Service Payments, either Employer or Freelancer may elect to use the Service Dispute Resolution Services offered by Nigeria Skills as set out in the Service Disputes Policy. The Employer and Freelancer will then be notified that the matter will be addressed through the Service Dispute Resolution Services.

You agree to indemnify and (to the maximum extent permitted by law) hold Nigeria Skills and any of our affiliates harmless against any damages or liability you may suffer as a result of using the Service Payments and/or Service Dispute Resolution Services.

Nigeria Skills will respond to disputes initiated by a Freelancer or an Employer in accordance with the Service Dispute Resolution Services as set out in this clause in the Service Disputes Policy and in relation to disputes that arise in relation to the provision of the venue, and the hosting of the Website by Nigeria Skills as set out in the clause entitled Disputes with Us.

Other Disputes With Users

You acknowledge and agree that in the event that a dispute arises between you and another User in relation to any project that you will first attempt to resolve any differences that you have in relation to such Project, including in relation to the quality of the services provided.

If you continue to have any difficulties or problems in relation to a dispute with another User in relation to a project we encourage you to contact us as set out in the Clause entitled “Contacting us”.

You agree that any dispute that is not related to a Service Payment (which must be dealt with in accordance with the Service Disputes Policy) arising between you and another User will be handled in accordance with this clause. Nigeria Skills will have full rights and powers to make a determination for all such disputes. Upon receipt of a dispute, Nigeria Skills shall have the right to request the Seller and the Buyer to provide documentation in support of their claim or position in relation to the dispute. You agree that Nigeria Skills has absolute discretion to accept or reject any document provided. You also acknowledge that Nigeria Skills is not a judicial or alternative dispute resolution institution and that we will make the determinations only as an ordinary reasonable person. In addition, we do not warrant that the documents provided by the parties to the dispute will be true, complete or correct and you agree to indemnify and (to the maximum extent permitted by law) hold Nigeria Skills and any of our affiliates harmless against any damages or liability you may suffer as a result of any documentation or material subsequently being found to be false or misleading.

In relation to disputes with any other users of the Website, you hereby agree to indemnify Nigeria Skills from any and all claims, demands, and damages, actual and consequential, of every kind and nature, known and unknown, that is related to such a dispute, our determinations or the use of the Service Dispute Resolution Services for Service Payments and/or for Other Disputes.

Dispute Resolution Services Code Of Conduct

The Nigeria Skills Code of Conduct applies to all the services offered by Nigeria Skills, including, but not limited to, the Service Dispute Resolution Services. It is agreed by you that you will make every endeavour at fair play and post reasonable and fair demands/offers on your dispute.

A User found to be in breach of the Code of Conduct during the Service Dispute Resolution Service process may automatically lose the dispute in favour of the other party involved, regardless of the origin of the dispute. The User who breached the Code of Conduct may also incur further disciplinary action. For more information, read the Code of Conduct.

Disputes With Us

If a dispute arises between you and Nigeria Skills, our goal is to address your concerns and, if we are unable to do so to your satisfaction, to provide you with a means of resolving the dispute quickly. We strongly encourage you to first contact us directly to seek a resolution by emailing us at [email protected].

For any claim, Nigeria Skills may elect to resolve the dispute in a cost effective manner through binding non-appearance-based arbitration. If Nigeria Skills elects arbitration, such arbitration will be initiated through an established alternative dispute resolution (ADR) provider, which is to be selected by you from a panel of ADR providers that Freelancer will provide to you. The ADR provider and the parties must comply with the following rules: a) the arbitration shall be conducted by telephone, online and/or be solely based on written submissions, the specific manner shall be chosen by the party initiating the arbitration; b) the arbitration shall not involve any personal appearance by the parties or witnesses unless otherwise mutually agreed by the parties; and c) any judgment on the award rendered by the arbitrator may be entered in any court of competent jurisdiction.

All claims you bring against Nigeria Skills must be resolved in accordance with the terms of this Agreement. All claims filed or brought contrary to this Agreement shall be considered improperly filed and a breach of this Agreement. Should you file a claim contrary to the terms of this Agreement, Nigeria Skills may recover its legal fees and costs (including in-house lawyers and paralegals), provided that Nigeria Skills has notified you in writing of the improperly filed claim, and you have failed to promptly withdraw the claim.

If any proceeding by or against you is commenced under any provision of any bankruptcy or insolvency law, Nigeria Skills will be entitled to recover all reasonable costs or expenses (including reasonable legal fees and expenses) incurred in connection with the enforcement of this Agreement.

The failure of Nigeria Skills to act with respect to a breach by you or others does not waive our right to act with respect to subsequent or similar breaches.

Competitions

We may run and promote competitions on the Website from time to time and such competitions will be subject to the terms and conditions as published by us on the Website.

Competition winners will be determined by us in accordance with the applicable terms and conditions at our absolute discretion. All decisions made us in respect of competition are final and we will not enter into any correspondence in relation to the prize or the promotion.

Contests

Employers can promote a Contest hosted on the Website by providing a Contest Brief and paying the Contest Prize in accordance to our instructions provided on the Website. An Employer who promotes a Contest acknowledges and agrees that it is solely responsible for the operation and promotion of the Contest and warrants that it will comply with all applicable law in respect of the operation and promotion of the Contest. We have no liability for loss suffered by a User in connection with a Contest including but not limited to loss suffered (or penalties imposed) in connection with a contravention of law.

Entrants may submit their entries in image, video, text or other format as specified on the Website. All entries must comply with the Contest Brief and must not infringe any Intellectual Property Rights. Any entry which infringes any Intellectual Property Rights will be an ineligible entry and subject to removal either by the Employer or us.

After awarding a Contest Prize, the Employer and winning Entrant(s) will enter into a Contest Handover and when the winning Entrant(s) has uploaded the winning entry (including all related files) to the Employer, the Contest Prize will be released to the winner of the Contest unless disputed by the Employer in which case the dispute must be resolved between the Employer and winning Entrant(s) before we can release the Contest Prize to the winning Entrant(s).

For avoidance of doubt, the Employer has no right or licence to use any entries other than the winning entry/entries. The Employer may not: (1) promote a Contest via the Website if the Employer is hosting a similar contest through another service; (2) allow or request Freelancers to submit entries to the Employer via other means than the Website; and (3) award another Account that might be deemed as collusion or awarding another Account owned by the Employer.

Release

If you have a dispute with one or more Users, you release us (and our officers, directors, agents, subsidiaries, joint ventures and employees) from claims, demands and damages (actual and consequential) of every kind and nature, known and unknown, arising out of or in any way connected with such disputes.

Access And Interference

You agree that you will not use any robot, spider, scraper or other automated means to access the Nigeria Skills Website for any purpose without our express written permission.

Additionally, you agree that you will not:

  • take any action that imposes or may impose (in our sole discretion, exercised reasonably) an unreasonable or disproportionately large load on our infrastructure;
  • interfere with, damage, manipulate, disrupt, disable, modify, overburden, or impair any device, software system or network connected to or used (by you or us) in relation to the Nigeria Skills Website or your Account, or assist any other person to do any of these things, or take any action that imposes, or may impose, in our discretion, an unreasonable or disproportionately large load on our infrastructure;
  • copy, reproduce, modify, create derivative works from, distribute, or publicly display any content (except for your information) from the website’s without the prior express written permission of Nigeria Skills and the appropriate third party, as applicable;
  • interfere or attempt to interfere with the proper working of the website’s, services or tools, or any activities conducted on or with the website’s, services or tools; or
  • bypass our robot exclusion headers or other measures we may use to prevent or restrict access to the Website.

Closing Your Account

You may close your Account at any time by emailing us at [email protected], subject to:

  1. not having any outstanding listings on the Website; and
  2. resolving any outstanding matters (such as a suspension or restriction on your Account); and
  • paying any outstanding fees owing on the Account.

Indemnity

You will indemnify us (and our officers, directors, agents, subsidiaries, joint venturers and employees) against any claim or demand, including legal fees and costs, made against us by any third party due to or arising out of your breach of this Agreement, or your infringement of any law or the rights of a third party in the course of using the Nigeria Skills Website and Nigeria Skills Services.

In addition, we can apply any funds in your Account against any liabilities you owe to us or loss suffered by us as a result of your non-performance or breach of this User Agreement.

Security

You must immediately notify us upon becoming aware of any unauthorised access or any other security breach to the Website, your Account or the Nigeria Skills Services and do everything possible to mitigate the unauthorised access or security breach (including preserving evidence and notifying appropriate authorities). You are solely responsible for securing your password. We will not be liable for any loss or damage arising from unauthorised access of your account resulting from your failure to secure your password.

No Insurance Or Warranty

We do not offer any form of insurance, or other Employer or Freelancer protection.

No Warranty As To Each User’s Purported Identity

Because User identification on the internet is difficult, we cannot and do not confirm each User’s purported identity. We may provide information about a User, such as a strength or risk score, geographical location, or third party background check or verification of identity or credentials. However, such information is based solely on data that the User submits and we provide such information solely for the convenience of Users and the provision of such information is not an introduction, endorsement or recommendation by us.

No Warranty As To Content On The Website

The Website is a dynamic time-sensitive website. As such, information on the Website will change frequently. It is possible that some information could be considered offensive, harmful, inaccurate or misleading or mislabelled or deceptively labelled accidently by us or accidentally or purposefully by a third party.

Our Services, the Website and all content on it are provided on an ‘as is’, ‘with all faults’ and ‘as available’ basis and without warranties of any kind either express or implied. Without limiting the foregoing, we make no representation or warranty about:

  1. the Website or any Freelancer Services or Nigeria Skills Services;
  2. the accuracy, reliability, availability, veracity, timeliness or content of the Website or any Freelancer Services or Nigeria Skills Services;
  3. whether the Website or Freelancer Services or Nigeria Skills Services will be up-to-date, uninterrupted, secure, error-free or non-misleading;
  4. whether defects in the Website will be corrected;
  5. whether the Website, the Freelancer Services or the Nigeria Skills Services or any data, content or material will be backed up or whether business continuity arrangements are in place in respect of the Website, Freelancer Services or Nigeria Skills Services;
  6. any third party agreements or any guarantee of business gained by you through the Website, Freelancer Services or Nigeria Skills Services or us; or
  7. the Website, Freelancer Services or Nigeria Skills Services or infrastructure on which they are based, being error or malicious code free, secure, confidential or performing at any particular standard or having any particular function.

To the extent permitted by law, we specifically disclaim any implied warranties of title, merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, quality, suitability and non-infringement.

Bar To Action

We may plead this User Agreement in bar to any claim, action, proceeding or suit brought by you, against us for any matter arising out of any transaction or otherwise in respect of this User Agreement.

No Class Actions

You and we agree that you and we will only be permitted to bring claims against the other only on an individual basis and not as a plaintiff or class member in any purported class or representative action or proceeding. Unless both you and we agree otherwise, the arbitrator may not consolidate or join more than one person’s or party’s claims and may not otherwise preside over any form of a consolidated, representative, or class proceeding. In addition, the arbitrator may award relief (including monetary, injunctive, and declaratory relief) only in favour of the individual party seeking relief and only to the extent necessary to provide relief necessitated by that party’s individual claim(s). Any relief awarded cannot affect other Users.

Notices

Legal notices must be served on Nigeria Skills or to the email address you provide to Nigeria Skills during the registration process (in your case). Notice will be deemed given 24 hours after email is sent, unless the sending party is notified that the email address is invalid or that the email has not been delivered. Alternatively, we may give you legal notice by mail to the address provided by you during the registration process. In such case, notice will be deemed given three days after the date of mailing.

Any notices to Nigeria Skills must be given by registered ordinary post.

Severability

The provisions of this User Agreement are severable, and if any provision of this User Agreement is held to be invalid or unenforceable, such provision may be removed and the remaining provisions will be enforced. This Agreement may be assigned by us to an associated entity at any time, or to a third party without your consent in the event of a sale or other transfer of some or all of our assets. In the event of any sale or transfer you will remain bound by this User Agreement.

Interpretation

Headings are for reference purposes only and in no way define, limit, construe or describe the scope or extent of such section.

Availability

Unless otherwise stated, the services featured on Nigeria Skills Website are only available within Nigeria, or in relation to postings from the Nigeria. All advertising is intended solely for the Nigerian market. You are solely responsible for evaluating the fitness for a particular purpose of any downloads, programs and text available through this site. Redistribution or republication of any part of this site or its content is prohibited, including such by framing or other similar or any other means, without the express written consent of Nigeria Skills. Nigeria Skills does not warrant that the service from this site will be uninterrupted, timely or error free, although it is provided to the best ability. By using this service you thereby indemnify this Nigeria Skills, its employees, agents and affiliates against any loss or damage, in whatever manner, howsoever caused.

Log Files


We use IP addresses to analyse trends, administer the site, track user’s movement, and gather broad demographic information for aggregate use. IP addresses are not linked to personally identifiable information. Additionally, for systems administration, detecting usage patterns and troubleshooting purposes, our web servers automatically log standard access information including browser type, access times/open mail, URL requested, and referral URL. This information is not shared with third parties and is used only within Nigeria Skills on a need-to-know basis. Any individually identifiable information related to this data will never be used in any way different to that stated above without your explicit permission.

Cookies


Like most interactive web sites Nigeria Skills Website may use cookies to enable us to retrieve user details for each visit. Cookies may be used in some areas of our site to enable the functionality of this area and ease of use for those people visiting. Some of our affiliate partners may also use cookies.

Links to this website

You may not create a link to any page of this website without our prior written consent. If you do create a link to a page of this website you do so at your own risk and the exclusions and limitations set out above will apply to your use of this website by linking to it.

Links from this website

We do not monitor or review the content of other party’s websites which are linked to from this website. Opinions expressed or material appearing on such websites are not necessarily shared or endorsed by us and should not be regarded as the publisher of such opinions or material. Please be aware that we are not responsible for the privacy practices, or content, of these sites. We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our site & to read the privacy statements of these sites. You should evaluate the security and trustworthiness of any other site connected to this site or accessed through this site yourself, before disclosing any personal information to them. Nigeria Skills will not accept any responsibility for any loss or damage in whatever manner, howsoever caused, resulting from your disclosure to third parties of personal information.

Copyright Notice

Copyright and other relevant intellectual property rights exists on all text relating to the Nigeria Skills services and the full content of this website.

Communication


We have several different e-mail addresses for different queries. These, & other contact information, can be found on our Contact Us link on our website or via Nigeria Skills literature or via the Nigeria Skills stated telephone, facsimile or mobile telephone numbers.

Force Majeure

Neither party shall be liable to the other for any failure to perform any obligation under any Agreement which is due to an event beyond the control of such party including but not limited to any Act of God, terrorism, war, Political insurgence, insurrection, riot, civil unrest, act of civil or military authority, uprising, earthquake, flood or any other natural or man made eventuality outside of our control, which causes the termination of an agreement or contract entered into, nor which could have been reasonably foreseen. Any Party affected by such event shall forthwith inform the other Party of the same and shall use all reasonable endeavours to comply with the terms and conditions of any Agreement contained herein.

Waiver

Failure of either Party to insist upon strict performance of any provision of this or any Agreement or the failure of either Party to exercise any right or remedy to which it, he or they are entitled hereunder shall not constitute a waiver thereof and shall not cause a diminution of the obligations under this or any Agreement. No waiver of any of the provisions of this or any Agreement shall be effective unless it is expressly stated to be such and signed by both Parties.

General

The laws of Nigeria govern these terms and conditions. By accessing Nigeria Skills Website and using Nigeria Skills services you consent to these terms and conditions and to the exclusive jurisdiction of the Nigerian courts in all disputes arising out of such access. If any of these terms are deemed invalid or unenforceable for any reason (including, but not limited to the exclusions and limitations set out above), then the invalid or unenforceable provision will be severed from these terms and the remaining terms will continue to apply. Failure of Nigeria Skills to enforce any of the provisions set out in these Terms and Conditions and any Agreement, or failure to exercise any option to terminate, shall not be construed as waiver of such provisions and shall not affect the validity of these Terms and Conditions or of any Agreement or any part thereof, or the right thereafter to enforce each and every provision. These Terms and Conditions shall not be amended, modified, varied or supplemented except in writing and signed by duly authorised representatives of Nigeria Skills.

Notification of Changes

Nigeria Skills reserves the right to change these conditions from time to time as it sees fit and your continued use of the site will signify your acceptance of any adjustment to these terms. If there are any changes to our privacy policy, we will announce that these changes have been made on our home page and on other key pages on our site. If there are any changes in how we use our site customers’ Personally Identifiable Information, notification by e-mail or postal mail will be made to those affected by this change. Any changes to our privacy policy will be posted on our website 30 days prior to these changes taking place. You are therefore advised to re-read this statement on a regular basis.

Additional Terms

It is important to read and understand all our policies as they provide the rules for trading on Nigeria Skills website. In addition there may be specific policies or rules that apply, and it is your responsibility to check our Help pages and policies to make sure you comply. Our policies, including all policies referenced in them, are part of this Agreement and provide additional terms and conditions related to specific services offered on our websites, including but not limited to:

Feedback

If you have any questions about this User Agreement or if you wish to report breaches of this User Agreement, please contact us by emailing us at [email protected].

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