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Terms and Conditions of use

I. SUBJECT

The Terms & Conditions of Use (T&Cs) or End User License Agreement (EULA) are a contractual document governing the terms and conditions of interaction between the provider of a service and its users.

The Terms & Conditions of Use do not constitute a binding document. It is an optional document that may be submitted to the user of a service to govern its use.

This is a contractual document. It is a contract of adhesion as opposed to a negotiated contract. The service user chooses to accept or reject them but does not negotiate their content with the service operator.

Like any contractual document, the general conditions of use commit the user of the service and its operator to respect their content.

II. PRECONDITIONS

Please read the following terms of use carefully before you start using the BIFTON service. Its use implies that you certify that you have read them and that you accept them without reservation. In case you do not accept the TOS or have reservations, please do not use this application.

To conclude these general conditions of use, and to access the BIFTON application, you must be at least 21 years old.

If you are a child (age < 21), you must have your parent or legal guardian read and agree to these Terms of Service for you and take full responsibility for them .

If you are Cameroonian and reside in a conflict zone, the BIFTON service may be refused to you under the conditions of the clauses stipulated in these general conditions.

III. ACCEPTANCE OF THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS

Acceptance of these terms and conditions of use is done in the dialogue that is triggered when a user creates a BIFTON account on bifton .com or on the BIFTON mobile application by checking the box “I confirm that I have read and approved the Terms and Conditions of use of the Bifton platform. ». The user thus accepts the particular conditions, concluding the agreement between the BIFTON service and himself (the user).

This acceptance gives the company Ets BIFTON the right to deduct from the Mobile Money, Orange Money, Bank account of the user in the event of non-reimbursement of a loan contracted in order to return it to the lender.

BIFTON reserves the right to modify these terms and conditions and will post updated versions at the following URL: https://bifton.com/terms-conditions. Any changes to these terms and conditions will be notified to the user for acceptance before using the platform.

IV. SOME DEFINITIONS

USSD code (Unstructured Supplementary Service data): Protocol or interface used by a GSM terminal to communicate with the server of the operator providing a service.

Special conditions: The customer's personalized digital offer that he receives when making the BIFTON loan and where the credit or the specific conditions of the customer are defined (via SMS, Email, notification Web…) ;

Reimbursement date: Reimbursement date of the amount to be reimbursed indicated in the specific conditions of the borrower or any other date communicated via the BIFTON platform.

Financial Institution: Bank or Micro Finance Institution (MFI) having signed a SAAS "software as a service" contract with The company BIFTON, carrier of the platform BIFTON and using it as a tool linking the lender and the borrower credits.

MoMo: Mobile Money Service of the Mobile Phone Operator MTN CAMEROON.

OM: Mobile Money Service of the ORANGE CAMEROON Mobile Telephony Operator.

Amount to be refunded: Refers to the total amount to be refunded for the mobile credit obtained by the customer, including all service charges and any penalties.

Loan: Amount of at least 10,000 FCFA that the Lender can, via the BIFTON technological platform, grant by mobile phone to a borrower via a Bank account or Mobile money (MTN MoMo, Orange Money, Other bank), for a period of at least one day depending on the amount.

Password: issued to the customer when registering on the BIFTON platform, by means of which he can access it and which allows him to use his BIFTON account and to be recognized there for its nano deposits and nano credit operations.

The Mobile Telephone Operator (OTM): Telecom company, concessionaire of the State of Cameroon in the field of electronic communications and signatory of an interconnection contract with the company ETS BIFTON, bearer of the BIFTON Technology Platform.

BIFTON System: Or BIFTON platform is a software system comprising all the tools, materials, software and servers belonging to the BITFON company, and which is used by the Private Lender to facilitate and offer its lending services to the public.

User: Refers to any natural person residing in Cameroon, holder or enjoying a Mobile subscription with one of the local mobile telephone operators who has created an online account on the BIFTON platform via bifton.com or via the BIFTON mobile app.

Waiting fees: These are the charges calculated over the repayment period of the loan.

Solidarity Fund: These are the charges deducted from the loan in order to insure cases of non-repayment.

V. LOAN APPLICATION AND MANAGEMENT

a) Subscription to the BIFTON service and permissions to use

Before you can benefit from the services offered by the BIFTON platform, the user must first create his account and fill in the mandatory information required by the platform, then it must be recommended by a user of the platform. All users of the Bifton platform thus constitute a community: BIFTON Community. He may possibly pay an annual subscription fee to the platform (this is left to the discretion of the BIFTON company to decide on the applicability). Registration is validated by a bifton team in charge of the account validation process after verifying the authenticity of the information provided by the user.

Each year on the date corresponding to the day of registration, the customer pays an annual renewable community membership fee of 1,000 FCFA to the BIFTON system. These amounts depend on the profiles.

By accepting these terms and conditions, the user authorizes the BIFTON platform to automatically initiate requests for direct debit and payment of money in their various mobile money accounts of mobile telephone operators or their accounts housed in banking institutions.

He also authorizes BIFTON to make all his personal information available to the mobile phone operator, banks as well as his photo in the "Display" or "BLACKLIST" tab ” on the BIFTON platform and on the BIFTON pages on social networks.

In the event that the loan granted to him is not repaid within the contractual period:

  • It also authorizes BIFTON to proceed on request to any direct debit from the author of the amount due for reimbursement to the lender and transfer of the sums available on its mobile money and/or bank accounts with the various mobile telephone operators and financial institutions.< /li>

The BIFTON general conditions being subject to an annual review, users who have already subscribed to the BIFTON service must accept the revised general conditions again after each revision to benefit again from the BIFTON services.


b) Notion of loan request

Loans via the BIFTON application can be granted to individuals of legal age. The minimum value is 10,000 FCFA

Each loan request is automatically assessed based on the borrower's ability to repay, their recommendations, their guarantors and their behavior on the platform.

The evaluation of this request gives a score to it which measures the probability of the borrower repaying the loan he wants to grant in his request. In addition to this score, other information devoid of identifying character in order to keep the anonymity of the borrower allows the lender to have an idea and the necessary and sufficient information which will allow him to decide to make an offer for this request to this borrower. The score calculation algorithm is an intellectual property of BIFTON.

The duration of the loan, the repayment dates and the amounts are defined by the lender and the borrower according to an agreement approved by both parties, before any withdrawal from the lender's account and payment into the borrower's account is not carried out.

The borrower can receive several proposals at his request and is free to choose the offer that suits him.

The loan is considered closed when all the amount owed by the borrower to the lender is repaid in full, including the penalties incurred.


c) Service Fees

The net amount to be collected by the borrower when a loan request has been approved by both parties is equal to the principal amount requested at the time of the loan from which are deducted the BIFTON service fees, the Charges of the Solidarity Fund and the Costs of debiting and depositing money from mobile money accounts of telephone operators and/or accounts of financial institutions.

The charges for withdrawing and depositing money for the loan vary depending on the Mobile Money operator or financial institution. These fees will be displayed when applying for the loan to the borrower.

The BIFTON service fees are also displayed to the borrower when creating their application on the platform.

The Charges of the Solidarity Fund are also displayed to the borrower when creating their application on the platform.

The amount to be repaid by the borrower is the sum of the principal amount requested by the borrower to which is added the amount of interest from the lender, a monthly standby fee on the remaining principal if the duration of the borrowing exceeds 30 days and direct debit fees for the repayment of mobile money accounts and/or financial institution accounts.

The interest rate is proposed by the borrower when submitting their application and is also displayed on the application. The lender in his offer can approve the interest rate defined by the borrower or make a counter-proposal of this rate. The final interest rate is the one approved by both parties. This interest rate may not exceed a maximum set by the platform and the overall effective rate of the request may not exceed the wear rate set by the regulations in force.

The waiting fees depend on the duration of the loan and are only applicable for loans with a duration of more than 30 days. After the 30th day, a rate defined by the platform is set, applied every 30 days following the duration of the loan. The request cannot exceed 12 months.

The borrower can associate one or more guarantors with his loan request. The guarantor or all of the guarantors by a joint action will assume full responsibility and the obligation to repay the totality of the loan granted by the borrower when the borrower will not have discharged his debt to the maturity date defined and approved by the guarantor. Once the due date for a repayment has arrived, the individual guarantor or guarantors immediately inherit(s) all of the borrower's obligations with respect to its debt.


d) Warranty

In order to guarantee that in the event of insolvency the lender will regain his rights, the borrower authorizes the BIFTON system to deduct from his mobile money account of local mobile telephone operators or from his accounts in financial institutions to reimburse his total debt owed which consists of the principal loan plus service charges and, if applicable, penalties.

The borrower can also have one or more guarantors that he will choose when applying for a loan. The guarantor must be a member of the BIFTON community of which they have recommendations in common.

The borrower undertakes not to dispute the amount that the BIFTON system is claiming from him and BIFTON undertakes to transparently present to the borrower during his request the current amount of his debt as well as the rates of penalties that may apply to the request: Any dispute may only be brought to the General Management of BIFTON or in the event of non-conciliation before the courts of Yaoundé and Douala.

When the borrower finds that he will not be able to meet his commitments according to the due date he has defined, he can request a moratorium on the platform and the lender must accept this moratorium so that he be valid. The moratorium is chargeable.

The due date of a moratorium cannot exceed the date of the next repayment due date.

A loan request cannot have more than 12 moratoriums.

The moratorium cannot be requested 30 days after the last deadline without there being a previous moratorium.
Insolvency is noted 30 Days after the penalties are applied to the amount of the debt. Once the insolvency has been noted, the recovery process by force is initiated, starting with daily reminders for the next 30 days, the display of information and images on the bifton platform, then the display on social networks and finally the initiation of legal action.


e) Notification in the special conditions of a BIFTON loan application

On www.bifton.com or the BIFTON mobile application the borrower can apply for a loan. If accepted, the borrower receives a message by SMS or Email confirming that the loan has been approved.


f) Scoring of the BIFTON loan request

The loan is granted manually to the borrower by the lender because BIFTON in no case stores, and does not have access to the mobile money account or bank account of any user. Bifton only proceeds to the automatic initiation of the withdrawal and payment of money in the various user accounts after validation by them.


g) Borrowing request limit

The limit amount of Bifton is initially imposed by the limit amount that can be withdrawn from the mobile money accounts of mobile operators but above all by the financial capacity of each user. Depending on the financial capacity of each user, the BIFTON platform determines the monthly quota which is the maximum amount that he is able to repay monthly and therefore which naturally defines the monthly limit so he is able to repay in his request.

VI– REPAYMENT OF A BIFTON LOAN

To repay their debt, the user must return to the platform, log in and repay their debt using the corresponding feature.


i) Repayment of a BIFTON loan

The duration of a BIFTON loan is defined by the agreement between Borrower and Lender.

At the latest at maturity, the borrower is required to repay the loan consisting of the principal plus the corresponding service charges.

If the borrower does not know how the amount to be repaid was calculated, he can call the indicated BIFTON customer service for an explanation. However, the borrower can consult an independent financial advisor for further explanation. The Lender shall not be liable for any inaccurate explanation or statement obtained.

In the platform, borrower and lender are anonymous except in the event of non-reimbursement on time and therefore litigation or insolvency. In the latter cases, the BIFTON platform will lift the veil on the anonymity of the borrower and lender and will initiate the forced recovery procedure as explained above.

The loan is deemed transferable and the acknowledgment of debt terminated as soon as it is paid into the mobile money account or the bank account of the Lender.

The borrower can then choose to repay it partially, he ensures that the debt is repaid at the maturity of the loan.

The day after the due date, if the borrower has still not repaid in full, the debt remains and any penalties may apply as defined when applying for the loan.

The borrower who wishes to repay the loan, goes to the Repay or My Transactions option, then follows the various steps displayed to guide him.

The borrower may request a moratorium at the discretion of the lender by paying beforehand an amount to be paid to the lender of up to 03% max of the amount remaining to be repaid for 30 days renewable following the last due date and 02 % fixed as BIFTON fee for moratorium. If the moratorium is rejected, the recovery procedure will follow.

In the event of non-compliance with the repayment of a loan on the last due date, a penalty of a maximum of 3% as Bifton Fee and the penalty rate defined during the loan application between the borrower and the lender applied to the remaining amount accumulated over each 15 Days for a maximum of 45 Days.

In the event of non-compliance with the repayment of a due date of a loan with several due dates, a penalty of 3% as Bifton Fee and the penalty rate defined during the loan application between the borrower and the lender is applied to the remaining amount of the installment concerned.

The above mentioned rates may be revised at the discretion of Bifton and will always be displayed to the user in the event of modification.


ii) Forced recovery and penalties

The day after the renewal of the loan expires, the borrower is deemed insolvent; the forced collection procedure is then automatically triggered.

Borrowers deemed insolvent could be exposed via the "DISPLAY" or "BLACKLIST" tab and shared on BIFTON's social media pages (FACEBOOK, Twitter, Instagram, …) and will no longer qualify for loans unless they repay their debt in full and after an observed restitution process.

The BIFTON judicial recovery procedure complies with Law N° 2019/021 of December 24, 2019 laying down certain rules relating to credit activity in the banking and microfinance sectors in Cameroon. This law among others now exposes the insolvent borrower to banking prohibition, fines and prison sentences.

BIFTON judicial collection is a four-phase process:

  • The first phase is the notification of users who have recommended it and those who have received its recommendations by SMS and Email.
  • The second phase is exposure on the BIFTON platform for all other borrowers via the "AFFICHAGE" or "BLACKLIST" tab with notification to those recommended and those who recommended it.
  • The third phase of fine-tuning which will be done with the assistance of judicial police officers upon summons.
  • The last phase is the initiation of the actual legal action.

The list of insolvent customers classified by geographical area is brought to the competent services of the judicial police by way of complaint. The summonses received from the judicial police are scanned and sent to these insolvent customers in their WhatsApp accounts or by any other means so that they can go to the police station or the gendarmerie to answer for the facts of which they are accused.

At the same time, the BIFTON system sends a message to these insolvent borrowers to invite them to repay their loan without delay with penalty if it wants the legal proceedings thus initiated to cease. All costs incurred in the context of forced recovery are the responsibility of the borrower and the debt due will be recorded in his account.

This phase is concluded when the borrower has effectively repaid his debt electronically plus the penalty calculated as the sum of the waiting costs and the costs spent on the complaint and at the same time presents the message received from the BIFTON system to the investigator in charge of his case.

If the insolvent borrower does not pay his debt after the three legal summonses, his case may be sent to the Public Prosecutor by the diligence of BIFTON's lawyers. Whatever the sums due, the amicable settlement can only take place after payment of a penalty of the Loan Amount calculated as the sum of the waiting costs and the legal costs (exclusively on the BIFTON collection account).

In the absence of an amicable settlement, the legal proceedings continue in their normal course and the borrower is thus exposed to the payment of damages in addition to the sums due.


iii) DISPLAY

Posting consists of introducing insolvent people to the BIFTON community. A tab will be available where all the borrowers who have not honored their commitments will be displayed.

The content of the display can be all useful information to inform other users: Photo, ID card with photo, Last name, first name, loan amount, non-repayment period. Each display will have a QR Code for authentication.

The recommended people will be informed by email, sms,…

VII. BIFTON LOAN PROCESS

a) It should be noted that BIFTON is a community that connects individuals so that they can grant each other loans at your preferential rates.

b) The Lender and the Borrower are the users of the BIFTON platform

c) The Borrower requests the loan via the BIFTON platform. His request is anonymous

d) Any user can be a lender even if he is in debt

e) A potential lender can suggest another offer to the borrower by modifying a few elements: due dates, interest rates

f) A borrower may receive multiple offers for a loan application

g) A borrower can only accept one offer and an acknowledgment of debt document will be produced containing the loan information (loan amount, interest, …). Borrower and lender will be anonymous (an identifier will be generated).

h) In the event that the Borrower is granted a loan, the BIFTON platform will make a direct debit from the Lender's account to the Borrower's account, based on the personal information collected (KYC), in which the amount of the loan granted to the Borrower will be returned to him.

i) To repay his loan, the borrower must, from his terminal, instruct the BIFTON platform to withdraw, in one or more instalments, his mobile money account or his bank account the amount of his debt to transfer to the lender's account the same due, thus canceling the debt paid.

j) By validating the General Conditions, the customer explicitly authorizes the BIFTON Platform to automatically deduct from all his mobile money accounts or bank accounts the amount of his debt, if at the expiration of the duration of the BIFTON loan, the borrower has not voluntarily settled his debt.

k) A loan request with a maximum validity of 07 days

VIII – FREE CHOICE OF LENDER BY THE BORROWER

The Borrower acknowledges that his acceptance of the special conditions that preceded the granting of his loan, and in which appears the name of the Lender relating to his operation and which he could have refused, constitutes his free choice.

IX – RIGHT TO PERSONAL INFORMATION OF THE USER

By accepting these general conditions, the user authorizes the Lender acting through the BIFTON platform to request from its partners, mobile telephone operators or financial institutions, all information and personal data held by them in order to offer and manage BIFTON products and services, including any other information likely to allow said BIFTON to better identify the user, manage its risk and comply with the regulatory requirements of the banking profession and the methods of “Know Your Customer” evaluation.

By accepting these general conditions, the user authorizes and gives his consent to the partners (Mobile telecom operator, Micro finance, and Bank) and Lender acting through the BIFTON platform to disclose any personal information that these structures could hold about it and which could be used for the optimal management of its BIFTON operations in the platform.

The user also authorizes that in the context of credit applications, the Lender acting through the BIFTON platform also reserves the right to request, if necessary and at any time, and to obtain additional information . Failure to provide us with this information in a timely manner may result in rejection of the borrowing request or termination of the borrowing function for that borrower.

X – TERMINATION OF CONTRACT WITH BIFTON

a) In case of default

Without prejudice to the other provisions of these General Conditions, the BIFTON system, acting on behalf of its Lending partner, may exclude users from its system and thus cease to receive their credit requests, in the event of failure of the borrower for various reasons.


b) Upon termination of any Contract with the Borrower

All amounts to be refunded will be due in full.

XI – LEGAL COSTS AND OTHER DISPUTES

If the user fails to pay the full amount to be reimbursed after the deadline, the BIFTON company acting through the BIFTON platform will be entitled to claim reasonable costs from the borrower (including legal costs if applicable) incurred in the recovery process down to the last penny of the amount to be reimbursed.

XII – DEVICES AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE BORROWER

Bifton cannot be held responsible for any error or failure due to malfunction of the user's equipment, nor for any loss or delay due to failure of the system of one of BIFTON's technical partners.

The user agrees and acknowledges that he has full responsibility to protect and make good use of his equipment and to ensure the confidentiality and security of his secret information.

The user will immediately inform the BIFTON platform through its Customer Service in the following cases:

  • When the User has reason to believe that his Password is or may be known to an unauthorized person and/or has been compromised.
  • When it has reason to believe that unauthorized use of the Services has occurred, may have occurred, or may occur and that a transaction may have been made or compromised fraudulently.

The customer must systematically follow the security procedures notified to him from time to time by the BIFTON platform or any other procedure that may apply to the services from time to time.

The Borrower shall never exploit or use the BIFTON System in a manner detrimental to the Lender.

XIII – DISCLAIMER

The Lender, acting through the BIFTON platform, shall not be liable for any loss or damage suffered as a result of or in connection with

  • Any circumstance whatsoever beyond the control of BIFTON SYSTEM, including but not limited to, force majeure or system error, interruption, delay or unavailability , terrorist attack or war resulting in equipment failure, power failure, adverse weather or atmospheric conditions and public or private telecommunications system failure.

No dispute between the borrower and his mobile operator or his bank will give him the right to avoid his obligation to pay the amount to be repaid.

XIV – INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

The user agrees not to infringe the intellectual property rights of the BIFTON service.

XV – DISCLOSURE OF INFORMATION

The borrower accepts and expressly authorizes the BIFTON system to share his personal information with its other technical partners or to disclose it to other users of the platform and in social networks as well as his image in the event of insolvency, receive, store or use personal information held by them.

Consequently, under the terms of these T&Cs, the user waives any right or recourse that he may assert against the BIFTON company and its partners concerning the disclosure of the above-mentioned information by them or for their needs.

XVI – NOTICE

The BIFTON service may send transaction information via SMS or any other electronic means (email, BIFTON app, web notification) to the user's mobile phone number or email, associated or not to the BIFTON account or to the mobile money or bank account.

XVII – SETTLEMENT OF DISPUTES, JURISDICTION AND ARBITRATION

Any dispute arising from or in connection with these T&Cs not resolved by BIFTON Customer Service may be submitted to the courts of the Republic of Cameroon, which shall have sole jurisdiction.