Last updated 5 September 2026 · Ojawa.app, Lagos, Nigeria
These Terms of Service (“Terms”) govern your access to and use of Ojawa.app (“Ojawa,” “we,” “us”), a peer-to-peer marketplace for buyers and sellers in Lagos and across Nigeria. By creating an account, browsing listings, or using any part of the service, you agree to these Terms and to our Privacy Policy and Community Guidelines, which are incorporated by reference. If you do not agree, do not use Ojawa.
Ojawa is a listings and matchmaking platform. We help buyers and sellers find each other, agree on a price, and verify a safe handover — we are not a party to any sale between a buyer and seller, and we do not buy, sell, own, inspect, or take possession of any item listed on the platform.
Ojawa never holds your money. Trades are conducted in person, and payment for the item itself (cash, transfer, or however the two of you agree) passes directly between buyer and seller — Ojawa is not an escrow service and does not process, custody, or guarantee that payment. The only payments Ojawa itself processes (via Paystack) are for optional platform features: listing boosts, advertising campaigns, and the after-sale boost fee described in Section 7.
The Deal Code is a mutual verification step, not a payment or escrow mechanism: once a buyer and seller agree a price, each side receives a one-time code, and both codes must be entered by both parties — in person, after inspecting the item — before a deal is marked confirmed. It exists to give both sides confidence they met the right person and completed the handover; it does not verify the condition of goods or guarantee either party fulfilled their side honestly.
You must be at least 18 years old and able to form a binding contract under Nigerian law to use Ojawa.
You may sign up with a phone number (verified by a one-time code over WhatsApp or SMS), an email and password, or Google sign-in. You agree to:
Optional identity verification (NIN/BVN-based “Verified Trader” badges) is on our roadmap and not yet required to use Ojawa; where we do offer it, it will be voluntary unless stated otherwise for a specific feature.
Creating an account only ever makes you a buyer. To list items for sale, you must apply to become a seller — tell us about your store, what you plan to sell, and (optionally, to speed up review) your identity — and be approved by our team. We may decline an application, or later suspend selling access, at our discretion.
As an approved seller, you are solely responsible for what you list. You represent and warrant that:
Every listing goes through an automated quality check before it can go live, and may be reviewed, flagged, or removed by moderators at any time — including in response to a user report — without prior notice, if we believe it violates these Terms, our Community Guidelines, or the law.
When a buyer and seller agree on a price (directly, or by accepting an offer in chat), Ojawa opens a deal record and issues each party a private code. To complete the deal:
Codes expire 48 hours after a deal is agreed, and once one side enters a code, the other side has 30 minutes to enter theirs before that attempt lapses and must be redone. Five wrong code entries locks that side out for an hour. A deal only becomes “Confirmed” once both sides have independently verified — neither party can complete a deal alone.
Ojawa is not responsible for a buyer or seller who fails to show up, misrepresents an item, or does not pay as agreed. If something goes wrong, use the in-app report tools; our support team can review a dispute and, in limited cases, manually resolve a stuck deal record, but we cannot recover cash already exchanged in person and are not a party to that transaction.
Some listings run as timed auctions. A bid is a binding offer to buy at that price if you win. You may not retract a bid once placed. Bidding on your own listing is not allowed. A bid placed in the final minutes of an auction extends the closing time, to give other bidders a fair chance to respond.
When an auction ends, the highest bidder and the seller are connected to complete the Deal Code handshake at the winning price, under the same terms as Section 5. If a winning bidder does not follow through, we may suspend their bidding privileges.
Browsing, listing, buying, and selling on Ojawa is free. We charge for optional promotional features — listing boosts and advertising campaigns — processed securely through Paystack in Nigerian Naira (₦). We never see or store your card details; Paystack handles that directly.
A boost may be purchased “pay after sale”: the fee is charged only once the related listing’s deal is confirmed via Deal Code. Boost and advertising fees are non-refundable once a boost or campaign has gone live, except where required by law.
Buyers may leave one review per confirmed deal. Reviews must reflect a genuine transaction and your honest experience. Manipulating ratings — fake reviews, review-swapping, or pressuring a counterpart’s review — is prohibited and may result in the review being removed and the account actioned.
In addition to the item-specific rules in our Community Guidelines, you agree not to:
We rely on a combination of automated checks and human moderators to review reports and flagged content. Depending on severity, we may warn you, remove a listing or message, suspend messaging or bidding privileges, or permanently disable your account. Serious or repeated violations — fraud, safety threats, prohibited items — can result in immediate termination without warning.
“Ojawa,” our logo, and “Deal Code” are our trademarks. You keep ownership of the photos, descriptions, and messages you post, but you grant Ojawa a worldwide, royalty-free license to host, display, and distribute that content as part of operating the marketplace (for example, showing your listing in search results or a promotional banner).
Ojawa is provided “as is” and “as available.” We do not guarantee the accuracy of any listing, the conduct of any user, or that the platform will be uninterrupted or error-free. To the fullest extent permitted by Nigerian law, Ojawa and its team are not liable for any indirect, incidental, or consequential damages arising from a transaction between users, a lost or stolen item, or a failed meetup — our aggregate liability for any claim relating to the service is limited to the greater of ₦10,000 or the fees you paid us in the 3 months before the claim.
You may stop using Ojawa and request account deletion at any time. We may suspend or terminate your access if you violate these Terms, our Community Guidelines, or the law, or if we reasonably believe your account poses a risk to other users or the platform.
These Terms are governed by the laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Any dispute arising from these Terms or your use of Ojawa that cannot be resolved informally will be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of Lagos State.
We may update these Terms from time to time. If we make a material change, we’ll update the date at the top of this page and, where appropriate, notify you in-app. Continuing to use Ojawa after a change takes effect means you accept the updated Terms.
Questions about these Terms? Reach us at support@ojawa.app.
