Legal documentation

Terms of use of our Sparkle Application

Welcome to SPARKLE! These terms affect your legal rights, endeavor to read them and treat with utmost importance. These legal terms are between You and Sparke Microfinance Bank Limited (Sparkle/Sparkle/us/we/our) and you (you/your) and you agree to them by using the Sparkle Platform. You should read this document along with our Data Privacy Notice.

Age restriction

If you’re under 18, you must have the contractual capacity to enter a binding contract with us and are not barred from doing so under any applicable laws. However, you will need consent from your parent or legal guardian and will still be subject to these terms and conditions. Please note that you won’t be able to apply for loans as well as make payments for restricted items such as gambling, but all this will change once you turn 18.

Access to the Sparkle Platform

You must create an account with Sparkle to use our Platform, which can be used on a mobile device running an operating system supported by us. When creating and managing your account, all information provided must be true, accurate and complete. Providing false information of any kind may result in the freezing or termination of your account. You must update all account information when a change occurs. You are responsible for keeping your account and password secure and maintaining the confidentiality of your password. Additionally, you are completely responsible for all activities that occur under the account and any other actions taken in connection with it. You must immediately notify us of any unauthorized uses of your account or any other breaches of security. We will not be liable for any acts or omissions by you, including any damages of any kind suffered as a result of such acts or omissions. By default, we keep you logged into our platform, however, you can always amend these preferences. To log back in, you will need to enter your User ID and a unique PIN or biometric authentication. We may notify you from time to time about changes in the security information.

Consent

By using this Service, you consent to Sparkle transmitting, storing and processing your Personal Data. Our Privacy Policy explains how we treat your personal data and protect your privacy when you use our Platform. You consent to receiving electronic communication from Sparkle relating to your account. We may communicate with you via e-mail, text message (SMS), push notifications in the platform or through other methods, including our promotional newsletter or other announcements via email or other methods. You may opt out of receiving non-transactional communications, by following the directions in our e-mail to “Unsubscribe” from our mailing list, or by sending an e-mail request to (support@sparkle.ng). We will communicate with you in connection with transactional communications, including but not limited to servicing your account and customer services.

Making Payments

You need enough money in your account to make payments We may block payments if

• The transaction will take your balance below zero
• We suspect criminal activity on your account
• You go over your payment limits

Fee & Charges

You can find a list our fees for using some of the services on your Sparkle account. Please note you may have to pay additional costs such as taxes and transfer fees, which are outside our control and not charged by us.

Prohibited Uses

Sparkle enforces a strict policy against money laundering, terrorism, funding and conducting of businesses with entities/individuals situated in territories subject to trade sanction and/or individually subject to such sanctions. In addition to other prohibitions as set forth in this Agreement, you are prohibited from using the Platform or its Content in any of the following scenarios

• For any unlawful purpose;
• To solicit others to perform or participate in any unlawful acts;
• To violate any international, federal, state or local government regulations, rules, laws, or local ordinances;
• To infringe upon or violate our intellectual property rights or the intellectual property rights of others;
• To harass, abuse, insult, harm, defame, slander, disparage, intimidate, or discriminate based on gender, sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity, race, age, national origin, or disability;
• To submit false or misleading information;
• To upload or transmit viruses or any other type of malicious code that will or may be used in any way that will affect the functionality or operation of the Service or of any related mobile application, other mobile applications, or the Internet;
• To collect or track the personal information of others;
• To spam, phish, pharm, pretext, spider, crawl, or scrape;
• For any obscene or immoral purpose; or

You furthermore agree that any amounts paid to us by you shall not be proceeds from illegal activities. Should it be suspected and or/ proven by us that the Service is being used for illegal and/or illicit purposes, we reserve the right to immediately terminate the Services available to you and additionally reserve our rights to report your conduct to the relevant legal authorities for investigation and possible prosecution.

Termination Or Discontinuation Of Service

You can close your account at any time. If you’d like to, please get in touch with us. You'll need to repay any money you owe us before we can close your account. Once we have closed it, you won’t be able to access your account and all active cards will be blocked.

Sparkle may in its sole discretion, suspend or terminate your access to the Service, or discontinue providing the Service or any part of the Service at any time, with or without notice. We will close your account immediately if we believe you have

• Broken our terms and conditions
• Broken the law or attempted to break the law
• Given Sparkle false information
• Put Sparkle in a position that would have resulted in us breaking the law
• Been abusive to anyone in the Sparkle Tribe

You agree that we will not be responsible or liable to you or any third party for discontinuing the service or for terminating or suspending your access to the Service.

Intellectual Property

This Agreement does not transfer to you any intellectual property owned by Sparkle or third-parties, and all rights, titles, and interests in and to such property will remain (as between the parties) solely with Sparkle. All intellectual property, including but not limited to trademarks, service marks, graphics and logos used in connection with our Mobile Application or Services, are owned by Sparkle. Your use of our Mobile Application and Services grants you no right or license to reproduce or otherwise use Sparkle intellectual property.

Copyright Infringement

All rights reserved. No part of the Mobile Application may be copied, reproduced, ripped, recorded, re-engineered, decompiled, disassembled, modified, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means either electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of Sparkle. You shall also not sell, rent, lease, sublicense or otherwise transfer rights to the Mobile Application.

Technology Limitations And Modifications

Sparkle will make reasonable efforts to keep the Mobile Application operational. However, certain technical difficulties or maintenance may, from time to time, result in temporary interruptions. Sparkle reserves the right, periodically and at any time, to modify or discontinue, temporarily or permanently, functions and features of the Mobile Application, with or without notice, all without liability to you for any interruption, modification, or discontinuation of the Mobile Application Service or any function or feature thereof. You understand and agree that we have no obligation to maintain, support, upgrade, or update the Service, or to provide all or any specific content through the Service.

Disclaimer Warranty

This Service is provided on an “as is” and “as available” basis without warranties of any kind, either express or implied, including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement. Your use of the Mobile Application and any other material or services downloaded or made available to you through the software is at your own discretion and risk, and you are solely responsible for any damage resulting from their use.

Limitation Of Liability

In no event will Sparkle , its officers, directors, employees, agents, suppliers or licensors be liable for any direct, indirect, punitive or incidental, special, consequential damages or any damages (including, without limitation, damages for lost profits, revenue, sales, goodwill, use or content, impact on business, business interruption, loss of anticipated savings, loss of business opportunity) whatsoever however caused, under any theory of liability, including, without limitation, contract, tort, warranty, breach of statutory duty, negligence or otherwise, even if Sparkle has been advised as to the possibility of such damages or could have foreseen such damages.

Indemnification

Please keep your phone, Sparkle card(s) and PIN safe at all times. If we discover any security issues that may affect your account, we will be in contact as soon as possible.

You agree to indemnify and hold Sparkle and its affiliates, directors, officers, employees, and agents harmless from and against any liabilities, losses, damages or costs, including reasonable attorneys' fees, incurred in connection with or arising from any third-party allegations, claims, actions, disputes, or demands asserted against any of them as a result of or relating to your Content, your use of the Mobile Application or Services or any willful misconduct on your part.

Dispute Resolution

If you have a complaint, please contact us and we will do our best to fix the problem.

Parties shall use their best endeavors to amicably settle any dispute or difference of opinion arising from or in connection with this Agreement through mutual discussions.

Where the Parties are unable to resolve the dispute through mutual agreement within 30 days from receiving the Notice of Dispute, the dispute shall be submitted to arbitration in the English language in accordance with the Arbitration and Conciliation Act Cap. A18, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004, or any amendment thereto.

The place of arbitration shall be Lagos State, Nigeria and there shall be a sole arbitrator who shall be appointed jointly by the parties. Where the parties fail or are unable to jointly agree on the appointment, they shall approach the Lagos Court of International Arbitration to appoint a sole arbitrator who shall be competent to adjudicate on the issue in dispute. The arbitral award shall be final and binding between the Parties.

Changes and Amendments

We may modify the terms of this Agreement at any time, effective upon posting of an updated version of this Agreement in the Mobile Application. [Users are responsible for regularly reviewing these Terms of Use. Your continued use of this website following any modifications, changes or alterations shall constitute your acceptance of each such modification, change or alteration]/ When we do, we will send you an email to notify you. Continued use of the Mobile Application after any such changes shall constitute your consent to such changes.

Refer & Earn with Sparkle programme.

The benefits of the Refer & Earn with Sparkle Programme shall be subject to reasonable requirements of tracking, verification, and fair use.

The Refer & Earn scheme is targeted at rewarding members of the Sparkle Tribe for the referral of validated new users of the Sparkle Platform, and earnings would only be applicable in this regard. Sparkle tracks the relevant data and reserves the right not to reward any account holder seeking to take undue benefit of the scheme and in the event of fraud, use of bots or dud accounts.

Users may make inquiries regarding the Refer & Earn scheme by emailing support@sparkle.ng. All requests shall be processed within three (3) business days of the confirmation of the referral.

How to contact us

You can contact us through the Sparkle app or send us an email at support@sparkle.ng

How we’ll contact you

We will contact you via the Sparkle app, or through your email, phone or home address. Please let us know if any of these changes.

We also send you instant notifications when you spend or receive money.

Our Privacy Policy

Sparkle Microfinance Bank (Sparkle/us/we/our) operates the Mobile Application (Platform/Service).

This page informs you of our policies regarding the collection, use, and disclosure of personal data when you use our Service and the choices you have associated with that data.

By using the Service, you agree to the collection and use of information in accordance with this Privacy Policy. Unless otherwise defined in this Privacy Policy, terms used in this Privacy Policy have the same meanings as in our Terms of use.

The information we hold about you, and how we use it

We collect several types of information for various purposes and to improve the Service. All information that you provide is covered by the provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (As amended) and other extant laws and regulations regulating the use and management of personal data, inclusive but not limited to the Nigeria Data Protection Regulation (“Data Protection Regulations”).

Where you reside out of Nigeria, the laws and regulations regulating the use and management of personal data in your Jurisdiction shall apply.

TrueDepth API

Sparkle makes use of collected information using the device camera and the TrueDepth API provided by Apple. The only use of this information is to ensure that the user is a live human during verification. None of the information collected by the TrueDepth API ever leaves the user's device nor is it stored on the device.

Personal Data we collect

Personal data includes but is not limited to - Name, phone number, home address, date of birth, email address, Bank Verification Number (“BVN”), your profile picture (should you include one) and any other information deemed personal under force of law.

Usage Data

When you access the Service by or through a mobile device, we may collect certain information automatically, including but not limited to

• The mobile net• work and operating system you use.
• Your Internet Protocol(“IP”) address.
• Your mobile device unique Identifier.
• Your mobile advertising ID.
• Your location if you’ve authorized tracking.
• Unique device identifiers and other diagnostic data.

Information we collect when you join Sparkle

• Details you give when you sign up for a Sparkle account, like your name, BVN, email address and mobile number.
• The log in credentials and settings you choose for our app and card, so we can give you Sparkling services safely
• Your profile picture.

Information we collect when you use Sparkle

• Details about payments to and from your Sparkle account and your savings activity (stash).
• Details about services from us and our partners that you express interest in.
• Details about how you use our app.
• Information you give is through our chatbot

Information we collect from your phone

• The mobile network and operating system you use, so we can analyse how Sparkle works and fix any issues.
• Your location if you’ve authorised tracking, so we can protect you against fraud.
• Your phone contacts who use Sparkle.

How we use your information

We use your personal data for the following purposes

• To offer the services and functions in a safe and lawful way and to administer your use of the Service.
• To maintain and improve our Service.
• To prevent an illegal use of our Service.
• To detect, prevent and address technical issues.
• To notify you about changes to the Service.
• To verify your identity.
• To provide customer care and support.
• To monitor the usage of the Service.

Our reasons for using your information

According to the Data Protection Regulations, all forms of processing personal data must be on a lawful basis. We generally use your personal information for the purposes outlined above because

• It is necessary for our legitimate interests and does not unduly affect your interests or fundamental rights and freedoms.
• It is necessary for legal and/or regulatory obligations or requests that we are subject to, such as keeping records in accordance with applicable regulations or providing information to a public body or law enforcement agency.
• It is necessary to perform contractual obligations that we owe towards you, or to take pre-contractual steps at the request of you.
• In some cases, we have obtained your prior consent.

To the extent that we process any sensitive personal information relating to you for any of the purposes outlined above, we will do so because either

• you have given us your explicit consent to process that information;
• The processing is necessary for reasons of substantial public interest on the basis of applicable law (for example where we are required by law or regulatory requirements to process that information in order to ensure we meet our KYC and ‘anti money laundering’ obligations).
• or the processing is necessary for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims.

Consent

We will ask for your consent to

• process your personal data.
• tell you about our products and services, and those of our partners by email or push notification if we think they’re of interest to you. You can unsubscribe from these by email or via the app.
• help protect you against fraud by tracking the location of your phone if you have authorized it.
• show your profile picture in the app if you add one.
• share information about you with companies we work with when we need your permission.

You do not have to share information about yourself if you do not want to. But if you do not, you may not be able to use some (or any) of our services.

Transfer and Disclosure of Data

For the purposes mentioned above, we may transfer or disclose your personal data to

• Courts, law enforcement authorities, regulators, or attorneys if necessary, to comply with the law or for the establishment, exercise, or defense of legal claims.;
• Anyone you give us permission to share it with.

If you are located outside Nigeria and choose to provide information to us, please note that we transfer the data, including Personal Data, to Nigeria and it is processed in Nigeria.

Your consent to this Privacy Policy followed by your submission of such information represents your agreement to that transfer. We will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that your data is treated securely and in accordance with this Privacy Policy and no transfer of your Personal Data will take place to an organization or a country unless there are adequate controls in place including the security of your data and other personal information.

Duration for Keeping Personal Information

We will hold your personal information on Sparkle’s systems for as long as is necessary to fulfill the purpose for which it was collected or to comply with legal, regulatory or internal policy requirements.

Your Rights

The data protection law applicable to Sparkle when processing your personal data may entitle you to specific rights in relation to your personal data. In particular and subject to the respective statutory requirements, you are entitled to

• Obtain from Sparkle confirmation whether personal data concerning you are being processed, and where that is the case, access to the personal data.
• Obtain from Sparkle the rectification of inaccurate personal data concerning you.
• Obtain from Sparkle the erasure of your personal data.
• Obtain from Sparkle restriction of processing regarding your personal data.
• Data portability concerning personal data, which you actively provided.
• Object, on grounds relating to your particular situation, to processing of personal data concerning you.

Minor Policy

Our Service does not address anyone under the age of 18 ("Minor").
We do not knowingly collect personally identifiable information from anyone under the age of 18. If you are a parent or guardian and you are aware that your child/ children/ ward has provided us with Personal Data, please contact us. If we become aware that we have collected Personal Data from children without verification of parental consent, we take steps to remove that information from our server.

Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update our Privacy Policy from time to time. Thus, we advise you to review this page periodically for any changes.

We will notify you of any changes by posting the new Privacy Policy on this page. These changes are effective immediately, after they are posted on this page.

Contact Us

If you have questions regarding your data privacy rights or would like to submit a related data privacy right request, please email us as at support@sparkle.ng. Please allow up to 5 days for requests to be processed.

Information Security Policy

The Board and Management of Sparkle Microfinance Bank ("Sparkle"), located at Plot 76a Samuel Adedoyin Street, Victoria Island, Lagos is committed to preserving the CONFIDENTIALITY, INTEGRITY and AVAILABILITY of all the physical and electronic information assets throughout the organization, in order to preserve its competitive edge, assets, legal, regulatory as well as contractual obligations, compliance and reputation. Information and information security requirements will continue to be aligned with organizational goals and the Information Security Management System (ISMS) is intended to be an enabling mechanism for information processing, sharing, storage, electronic operations and reducing information related risks to an acceptable level. 

Sparkle is committed to providing quality services to our customers, both internal and external, by aligning Technology investments with organizational goals. It has aligned its processes and operations to the ISO27001, ISO22301 standards and PCIDSS requirements to ensure business continuity, cyber resilience, protection of its information assets and maximization of benefit/returns on Technology investments. 

It is therefore our policy to ensure that.

• Sparkle’s current strategy and Information Security and Risk Management framework provides the context for identifying, assessing, evaluating and controlling information-related risks through establishment and maintenance of the ISMS & BCMS. The Information Security risk assessment, Statement of Applicability and risk treatment plan identify how information – related risks are controlled in alignment with Sparkle’s risk management strategy.
• Business continuity and contingency plans, data backup procedures, access control to systems, incident management and reporting are fundamental to this policy. All employees of Sparkle shall have the responsibility of reporting information security breaches and other incidents.
• All employees of Sparkle and external parties identified in the Management Systems are expected to comply with this policy. All staff and certain external parties will receive or be required to provide evidence of receiving appropriate training. 
• The Chief Risk Officer (CRO) is the owner of this document and is responsible for ensuring that this policy document is reviewed and reapproved at least annually and in the event of relevant changes and/or incidents. 
• Breach of the policy or security mechanism may warrant disciplinary measures, up to and including termination of employment/contract as well as legal action in line with the Cybercrime Prohibition Act 2015.