Terms of Service

Operated by: IDARA MEDIA LIMITED , RC No. 1618394.

Effective date: July 2026

Last updated: July 2026

1. Agreement to terms

These Terms of Service ("Terms") form a binding agreement between you and IDARA MEDIA LIMITED ("Gradwate", "we", "us"), operator of the Gradwate learning platform, governing your use of:

• The Gradwate WhatsApp-based learning service
• The web portal at https://gradwate.com
• The Gradwate administrator/creator dashboard
• The Gradwate proctored-exam and certification service
• Any related APIs, content, or services we provide

By signing up, enrolling, sending a message to our WhatsApp Business number, or accessing any part of the service, you agree to these Terms and to our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, do not use the service.

2. Who can use the service

2.1 Age

You must be at least 13 years old to use Gradwate as an individual. Users aged 13–17 may use Gradwate only with the verified consent of a parent or guardian, and a minor may not sit a proctored, camera-based exam without a parent's or guardian's explicit consent (see Section 6). Where a school enrols a student under 13 in a cohort, the school represents that it has obtained appropriate parental consent. We may suspend accounts where age requirements are not met.

2.2 Capacity

You represent that you have the legal capacity to enter into these Terms, or, if you are under 18, that a parent or guardian has consented on your behalf.

2.3 Geographic availability

The service is offered primarily in Nigeria and selected African markets. We may restrict access from countries where we are not authorised to operate.

3. Your account

3.1 Authentication

We authenticate you via your phone number using a one-time code sent through WhatsApp. You are responsible for keeping your phone and WhatsApp account secure. If you suspect unauthorised access, you may log out (which immediately invalidates all active sessions) and contact support.

3.2 Accuracy

You agree to provide accurate information at signup and to keep it current. You may update your name, email, and preferences from the web portal.

3.3 One person per account

Each account is for a single individual. You may not share your account or let another person use it. Corporate cohort enrolments are tied to the specific employee identified by their employer. Certificates are personal to you; you may not sit an exam, or attempt to obtain a certificate, on behalf of anyone else.

4. Service description

4.1 What we provide

Gradwate delivers educational content (lessons, quizzes, courses, drip schedules) and certificates through WhatsApp and the web portal. Available content depends on the courses you enrol in or that your employer assigns to you.

4.2 Free and paid features

Some courses and features are free; others require payment, including per-course premium purchases, subscriptions, and paid certification exams. Pricing is shown before purchase. All sales are processed by Paystack. Prices are inclusive of any applicable VAT unless stated otherwise.

4.3 Corporate cohorts

If your employer enrolled you in a corporate cohort, your participation is part of your employment relationship. Gradwate provides the platform; the educational requirement comes from your employer. We share your progress with your employer as described in the Privacy Policy.

4.4 AI-assisted features

Parts of the service use automated processing and a third-party AI model provider — for example to grade free-text answers, generate answer explanations and practice questions, and assist identity-check triage for proctored exams. AI-generated content and AI-assisted grades may occasionally contain errors. You can appeal any AI-assisted grade or automated exam/identity decision through support, and a human will review it (see Sections 6 and 9).

5. Payments and refunds

5.1 Payment

Paid features are charged at the price shown at point of sale, processed by Paystack. You authorise the charge at the time of purchase. Subscriptions renew as described at checkout; you can cancel future renewals from the portal.

5.2 Refund policy

• Courses (including premium single-course purchases): refundable within 7 days of purchase if you have completed less than 25% of the content.
• Proctored/certification exam fees: refundable before you begin the exam. Once you start a proctored exam (i.e. give consent and begin identity verification), the fee is non-refundable, because proctoring and review costs are incurred at that point.
• Certificates: non-refundable once issued (the credential record cannot be revoked without invalidating it).
• Subscriptions: you may cancel future renewals at any time; the current paid period is non-refundable except where required by law or on a pro-rata basis within 14 days of the most recent renewal, at our discretion.

Refund requests should go to billing@gradwate.com with the payment reference.

5.3 Failed payments and chargebacks

If a payment is reversed (chargeback or unauthorised refund), we may suspend the related course/exam access or revoke any certificate purchased with that payment.

5.4 Course creators and payouts

If you publish content as a creator, payouts are made to the account you provide, via Paystack transfers, on the schedule and revenue-share terms in your creator agreement. You are responsible for your own tax obligations on payouts.

6. Proctored exams and certificates

6.1 Nature of certificates

Gradwate certificates confirm that you completed the specified course or exam at the stated time with the score shown. They include a cryptographic signature and a public verification URL showing your name, the course/exam, the issue date, and whether the exam was proctored. Gradwate certificates are not equivalent to credentials issued by formal regulatory bodies (e.g. WAEC, JAMB) unless we explicitly state otherwise on the certificate.

6.2 Proctoring conditions

To keep certificates credible, some exams are proctored. If you choose to sit a proctored exam, you agree that, after giving on-screen consent, we will:

• collect a photo of your ID and a selfie to confirm your identity;
• keep your camera on and capture periodic snapshots during the exam;
• record integrity signals (e.g. leaving the exam tab, exiting full-screen, pasting into answers, and — where enabled — automated face-presence checks).

This data is handled as sensitive personal data under our Privacy Policy: stored in a private, access-controlled location, used only to verify identity and exam integrity, and deleted after the review period. If you decline consent, you cannot take the proctored version of the exam but can still use the rest of the service.

6.3 Integrity, disqualification, and review

An exam may be flagged, put into manual review, or disqualified where identity cannot be confirmed or integrity signals indicate cheating. Where an automated check would significantly affect you (identity failure or disqualification), the outcome is subject to human review, and you may contest it via support@gradwate.com. We may revoke a certificate obtained through misrepresentation, impersonation, or cheating.

6.4 Technical requirements

Proctored exams require a device with a working camera, a supported browser, and a stable connection. We are not responsible for a candidate's inability to complete an exam due to their own device, camera-permission, or connectivity issues, though we will act reasonably to reschedule genuine technical failures.

7. Acceptable use

You agree not to:

• use the service for any unlawful purpose;
• cheat on quizzes or exams — by colluding, sharing questions or answers, impersonating another person, using unauthorised aids, or using automated tools;
• attempt to obtain a certificate fraudulently or for someone other than yourself;
• circumvent, disable, or tamper with proctoring or content-protection measures (including watermarking) or capture, copy, or redistribute protected content;
• resell, redistribute, or publicly post course content without our written permission;
• reverse-engineer, decompile, or extract our source code;
• probe or test the security of our systems without written authorisation (responsible disclosure welcome at security@gradwate.com);
• harass, abuse, impersonate, or harm any person, or interfere with the operation of the service (malware, spam, overload).

Violations may result in suspension, certificate revocation, refusal of refunds, and legal action.

8. Intellectual property

8.1 Our and creators' content

All course content, software, design, trademarks, and other intellectual property are owned by Gradwate, our creators, or our licensors. You receive a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable licence to access the content for your personal educational purposes (or, for corporate users, your employer's authorised internal training). Protected content is watermarked and access-logged to trace unauthorised copying; distributing it is a breach of these Terms and may infringe copyright.

8.2 Your content

You retain ownership of content you submit (e.g. quiz answers, reviews, profile information). You grant Gradwate a worldwide, royalty-free licence to use it to operate and improve the service in accordance with the Privacy Policy. You represent that you have the right to grant this licence.

8.3 Creator content

If you publish as a creator, you represent that you own or are licensed to distribute your content and that it does not infringe third-party rights. You grant Gradwate the licence necessary to host, watermark, deliver, and promote it on the platform.

8.4 Feedback

We may use suggestions or feedback you send us without obligation or compensation, and will not publicly attribute it to you without consent.

9. Automated decisions and appeals

Where the service makes an automated or AI-assisted decision that significantly affects you — an exam/identity disqualification, or a grade — you have the right to request human review and to contest the outcome. Contact support@gradwate.com with your exam or attempt reference. See the Privacy Policy for more on automated processing.

10. Third-party services

The service depends on WhatsApp (Meta Platforms), Paystack, our cloud hosting and storage providers, our AI provider, and our error-monitoring provider (each listed in the Privacy Policy). Your use of those third parties is governed by their own terms. We are not responsible for their outages, restrictions, or behaviour.

11. Disclaimers

11.1 Educational outcomes

Gradwate provides educational content to support your preparation. We do not guarantee any specific examination result, career outcome, certification recognition, or knowledge mastery. Your results depend on your own effort and factors outside our control.

11.2 Service availability

The service is provided "as available". We aim for high uptime but do not guarantee uninterrupted, error-free, or secure operation. WhatsApp and other third parties may experience outages outside our control.

11.3 No warranties

To the maximum extent permitted by law, the service is provided without warranties of any kind, express or implied, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement.

12. Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law:

• Gradwate's total liability for any claim arising from or relating to the service is limited to the greater of (a) the amount you paid us in the 12 months before the claim, or (b) NGN 50,000;
• we are not liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or for lost profits, lost data (beyond our backup duties described in the Privacy Policy), or business interruption;
• we are not liable for damage caused by your breach of these Terms, by third-party services, or by events beyond our reasonable control (force majeure).

Nothing here limits liability that cannot lawfully be limited (including for fraud, wilful misconduct, death or personal injury caused by negligence, or where mandatory consumer law provides otherwise).

13. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify and hold Gradwate.com, its officers, employees, and agents harmless from any third-party claim or demand, including reasonable legal fees, arising from your breach of these Terms, your violation of any law, or your infringement of any third party's rights.

14. Termination

14.1 By you

You may stop using the service at any time and delete your account from the portal. Some records (certificates, payments) are retained, in anonymised form where possible, for the periods described in the Privacy Policy.

14.2 By us

We may suspend or terminate your access if you breach these Terms, if required by law, or if continuing to serve you would create undue risk. Where lawful and practical, we will notify you and give a reasonable opportunity to fix the issue.

14.3 Effect of termination

Termination does not invalidate certificates already issued (subject to revocation for fraud or cheating). Provisions that by their nature should survive (ownership, limitation of liability, indemnification, dispute resolution) survive.

15. Dispute resolution and governing law

15.1 Governing law

These Terms are governed by the laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, without regard to conflict-of-laws principles.

15.2 Informal resolution first

Before any formal proceeding, contact us at support@gradwate.com and give us 30 days to resolve the matter in good faith.

15.3 Forum

If informal resolution fails, disputes will be resolved by ARBITRATION in Abuja, Nigeria.

15.4 Class actions

To the extent permitted by law, disputes must be brought individually and not as part of a class or representative action.

16. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms as the service or the law changes. Material changes will be notified to active users (e.g. by WhatsApp and on gradwate.com) at least 14 days before they take effect. The "Last updated" date reflects the latest revision. Continued use after a change constitutes acceptance.

17. Miscellaneous

• Entire agreement: these Terms, with the Privacy Policy and any product-specific or creator terms, are the entire agreement between you and us.
• Severability: if any provision is unenforceable, the rest remain in force.
• No waiver: our failure to enforce a right does not waive it.
• Assignment: you may not assign your rights; we may assign ours in a corporate transaction.
• Language: these Terms are in English; translations are for convenience and the English version controls.

18. Contact

• General: support@gradwate.com
• Billing: billing@gradwate.com
• **Privacyprivacy@gradwate.com
• Security: support@gradwate.com
• Appeals (exams/grades): support@gradwate.com
• Legal notices: support@gradwate.com
• Registered office: Abuja, Nigeria