SafeGroundSafeGround

Terms of Service

Last updated: October 13, 2026

1. Who we are

SafeGround ("SafeGround", "we", "us") is a product of DevArk Tech Limited, a company incorporated in Nigeria under the Companies and Allied Matters Act 2020 (RC 9144021). SafeGround helps people in Nigeria and in the diaspora save together, verify land before purchase, manage construction projects, and manage rental property, all through our mobile application (the "App") and this website. By creating an account or using the App, you agree to these Terms of Service ("Terms").

2. Eligibility and your account

  • You must be at least 18 years old to create an account. SafeGround wallets are individually held and PIN-authorized, and are not designed for use by a minor, with or without a parent's involvement.
  • You are responsible for keeping your login credentials and payment PIN confidential, and for all activity that happens under your account.
  • Most paid and wallet-based features, including funding your wallet, savings groups, Solo Savings, land verification, construction, and property management, require you to complete identity verification (KYC) first, by uploading a valid ID and a selfie, using either of two document types: an international passport, or your National Identification Number (NIN) slip or card. Viewing project details and chatting with support remain available before verification. We may restrict features until verification is complete.
  • Once your identity is verified with either document, you unlock full use of the App, including card top-ups. If you also want a dedicated bank account for receiving transfers directly into your wallet, you can separately submit your Bank Verification Number (BVN) from the Wallet section after verification. Setting up this dedicated account can take up to 48 hours.
  • Once your identity is verified, your full name, date of birth, and email become locked and can no longer be changed from within the App, since they are tied to your verified identity. Contact support if this information is genuinely wrong.
  • You may only hold one account. Creating multiple accounts, or an account on behalf of someone else without their authorization, is not permitted.

3. Wallet and payments

  • Your SafeGround wallet can be funded two ways. Card top-up is processed through Paystack, a licensed payment processor; your card details are entered directly into Paystack's secure checkout, never into the App itself, and we do not see, receive, or store your card number, expiry date, or CVV, in whole or in part. Bank transfer funding works through a dedicated bank account opened in your name with our banking partner once you submit your BVN after verification; once that account is active, you can fund your wallet by transferring to it at any time.
  • A payment PIN is not set automatically when your wallet is created, and setting one is optional, though strongly recommended: until you set a PIN from the Wallet section of the App, transfers out of your wallet can be completed without one. Once you set a PIN, it is required (and can be enforced or relaxed from Security settings) for external transfers, group contributions, and every service fee.
  • The App also offers biometric login and biometric transaction authorization (Face ID, fingerprint, or your device's equivalent) from Security settings, as an additional layer alongside your PIN.
  • Card top-ups carry a SafeGround fee, shown to you in full before you confirm. Currently 1.6% of the amount, capped at ₦2,500 regardless of how much you are topping up.
  • Bank transfers into your dedicated account carry a SafeGround fee, deducted before the balance reaches your wallet. Currently 0.6% of the amount, capped at ₦600.
  • A bank transfer into your dedicated account of ₦10,000 or more also carries Nigeria's Electronic Money Transfer Levy, a flat ₦50 government charge, not SafeGround revenue, set by the Central Bank of Nigeria and the Federal Inland Revenue Service, deducted alongside our fee.
  • External transfers out of your wallet carry a flat SafeGround fee, disclosed before you confirm the transfer. Transfers between two SafeGround users are free.
  • Group (Osusu) contributions, land verification, construction assessment, and property management each carry their own separately disclosed fee or fee package, described in more detail in the sections below and always shown to you in full before you confirm payment.
  • External transfers, once confirmed with your PIN, are typically irreversible. Please double-check the recipient before confirming.
  • We may delay, hold, or reverse a transaction where we reasonably suspect fraud, error, or a violation of these Terms.

4. Osusu, savings groups, and Solo Savings

  • A savings group ("Osusu") is created and run by its members, not by SafeGround. We provide the tooling (contribution tracking, payout scheduling, and group chat) and hold contributed funds securely, but we are not a party to any agreement between group members.
  • A group is set up as one of two kinds, chosen by whoever creates it: a classic rotating Osusu/Ajo, where the full pot for each cycle goes to one member in turn until everyone has been paid, or a fixed-savings group, where each member is simply saving toward their own pot and eventually receives back only what they personally contributed. Which kind a group is affects what you can expect to receive and when. A SafeGround group can only be joined by invitation from its admin, so its settings are not visible until you are already a member. Confirm the group's kind, contribution amount, and other terms directly with whoever added you before you start contributing.
  • For a rotating group, the group's admin chooses one of two ways the payout order works, fixed at group creation:
    • Random draw. Each member is randomly assigned a position in the payout order when the group starts, and the group then pays out in that order, one member per cycle, until everyone has received a payout.
    • Members agree. There is no fixed order. Instead, the group's admin decides when to release the pooled balance, and how:
      • Split the current balance evenly among members who have not yet been paid out, or
      • Pay the full current balance to one randomly chosen member who has not yet been paid out, or
      • Nominate a specific member to receive a specific amount, typically to fund a shared project or expense. This requires approval from more than half of the group's accepted members before the funds move, and we monitor for patterns consistent with a group being misused to move funds out quickly (for example, a newly created group approving a self-directed payout unusually fast), which can result in the request being blocked and the account involved suspended pending review.
  • A group's admin may enable a late-payment penalty with a grace period and a set amount, visible to you once you are a member. If enabled, it is automatically added to your contribution the next time you pay after the grace period has passed.
  • If you join a group after its first contribution cycle has started, you can only become eligible to win a payout starting from the round that covers when you joined, you cannot win a round that already completed before you joined. You may be offered the option to pay a lump sum covering the cycles you missed since the group's last payout; doing so makes you fully eligible for those still-open cycles, as if you had joined earlier. A round that has already paid out cannot be caught up on.
  • If a member has not paid by the time a cycle's grace period ends, the group's admin can complete that cycle and pay out without them; the non-paying member simply misses that cycle's payout. After missing three cycles this way, the group's admin can remove that member from the group. Removal refunds only that member's own contributions still sitting in a cycle that has not yet paid out, credited directly to their wallet, never the group's pooled funds.
  • A group's admin can request a change to the maximum number of members, the contribution amount, or the contribution frequency, but these only take effect once approved by SafeGround, since they affect what every member already agreed to when they joined. Each group has a limited number of these requests, currently three in total, after which contacting SafeGround support directly is required for anything further.
  • Any member can raise a dispute about their group directly with SafeGround from the group's settings, and we will look into it and help where we reasonably can.
  • SafeGround charges a small platform fee on each contribution, currently 0.1% of the contribution with a minimum of ₦5, set by SafeGround and disclosed in the App. Group admins cannot set or change this fee.
  • Because a rotating group's payout depends on every member continuing to contribute, a member's late payment or default can delay or reduce what other members receive. We are not responsible for losses caused by a group member's own default, dispute, or misconduct, though we will look into a dispute raised with us and may suspend a group or member's access pending investigation.
  • Solo Savings is a personal savings plan, separate from group Osusu. You set a target date when you create a plan, then contribute any amount, on any day, at your own pace, with no fixed schedule. Withdrawing the full plan balance on or after your target date is free. Withdrawing early, before your target date, carries a fee, currently 3.5% of the amount withdrawn.

5. Land verification

  • Land verification is a paid due-diligence service, priced as a package of line items disclosed to you before payment. Our team conducts title verification, survey confirmation, community and family enquiries, and legal review of the documents you or the seller provide, and delivers our findings back to you as a written report with supporting photos and documents.
  • Land verification is an assessment based on the information, documents, and site access available at the time of our review. It reduces, but does not eliminate, the risk of a land dispute, encumbrance, or title defect. It is not a guarantee of clean title. SafeGround does not sell, buy, or list land, and is never the seller.
  • You are responsible for the final decision to proceed with any land purchase, and for any funds paid directly to a third-party seller outside of the App.

6. Construction projects

  • Construction projects submitted through the App are managed directly by SafeGround, not handed off to an independent third-party contractor for us to merely hold funds on behalf of. Our team reviews your request, prices a site assessment, and, once that fee is paid, sets an overall budget and breaks the project into milestones after inspecting the site.
  • Milestone funds are not held in escrow pending our verification of completed work. Instead, you release each milestone's funds from your wallet when you are ready for that phase of work to begin, since materials and labor for a phase need to be paid for before that phase can start. Once released, a milestone payment cannot be reversed through the App.
  • You can track a project's progress through its review timeline, site photo and video gallery, and per-milestone checklist and documents at any time, and can message us directly with questions or concerns before releasing funds for the next phase.
  • Estimated timelines and costs are good-faith estimates from our team based on site conditions known at the time, and may change based on site conditions, material costs, or other factors outside our control. We will tell you about a material change before asking you to fund the affected milestone.

7. Property management

  • Properties enrolled in our management service are managed directly by our own team, not handed off to an independent third-party property manager.
  • Before we begin managing a property, a management fee package must be paid. This package, its line items, and whether it is billed monthly or quarterly are set by SafeGround and disclosed to you in full before payment.
  • Our team conducts a routine inspection and delivers a monthly report covering the property's condition, any issues found, and the status of that period's rent, with supporting photos.
  • Where a tenant pays rent directly to SafeGround on your behalf, we remit it to your SafeGround wallet and record it as such in your monthly report. Where a tenant pays your landlord or agent directly, we simply record that this happened based on what you and your tenant tell us. SafeGround does not handle or verify that money.
  • You may request an additional property inspection at any time by telling us your reason. Up to two such requests per property, per calendar quarter (currently two), are included at no extra cost; any further request within the same quarter carries a disclosed transportation fee, since it requires an additional site visit.
  • Repair requests we identify are documented with photos and a status you can track. Any documents relevant to your property, such as your tenancy agreement, are uploaded by our team and made available to you to view and download inside the App.

8. Prohibited conduct

You agree not to:

  • Provide false, forged, or misleading identity, land, financial, or property information, including forged land documents or a misrepresented construction or property status;
  • Use the App for money laundering, terrorism financing, fraud, or any other unlawful purpose, including structuring transactions to stay under a verification threshold;
  • Create more than one account, or create or use an account on behalf of someone else without their authorization;
  • Use a stolen, unauthorized, or fraudulently obtained card, bank account, or other payment instrument;
  • Attempt to access another user's account, wallet, or data without authorization;
  • Join or use a savings group with no intention of paying your contributions, or coordinate with others to unfairly manipulate a group's payout order or random draw;
  • Attempt to circumvent our fee structure, identity verification requirements, security controls, or dispute processes;
  • Use automated tools, bots, or scraping against the App, or otherwise interfere with its normal operation;
  • Harass, threaten, or abuse other users, SafeGround staff, or support channels, including through in-app chat;
  • Otherwise violate any applicable law or regulation, including Nigerian anti-money-laundering and counter-terrorism-financing rules.

9. Suspension and termination

We may suspend or terminate your account for violating these Terms, suspected fraud, or a legal requirement. You may delete your account at any time from within the App; outstanding wallet balances, group memberships, or in-progress services will be settled before deletion completes.

10. Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, SafeGround is not liable for indirect, incidental, or consequential losses arising from your use of the App, including losses caused by another user, a third-party seller, or a payment processor. Our total liability for any claim is limited to the fees you paid to SafeGround directly related to that claim in the preceding twelve months.

11. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. If we make a material change, we will notify you by email before it takes effect. Continued use of the App after a change takes effect means you accept the updated Terms.

12. Governing law

These Terms are governed by the laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

13. Contact

Questions about these Terms can be sent through the Contact Us or Chat Us options inside the App.