The agreement between you and AfriTutor

1.About these terms

These terms apply when you use the AfriTutor website and web app, book or teach lessons, or join group sessions. By creating an account, you agree to them. Our Privacy Policy explains how we use personal information, and our How it works page explains the service in more detail.

“You” means the person using AfriTutor. If you are a parent or carer, it also covers the children you add to your account, and you agree to these terms on their behalf. “Family” means a parent or a student who books lessons. “Tutor” includes Life Skills mentors unless we say otherwise.

2.Who you’re dealing with

• In the UK (and anywhere outside Nigeria): your agreement is with AfriTutor Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 17502907, registered office Suite RA01, 195-197 Wood Street, London, E17 3NU.
• In Nigeria: your agreement is with AfriTutors Scholar Hub Limited, registered in Nigeria (Corporate Affairs Commission), RC number 9922554, 106 4th Avenue, Gwarinpa, FCT Abuja, Nigeria, which runs AfriTutor in Nigeria using the platform provided by AfriTutor Ltd.

Which one applies depends on the country you choose when you sign up. You can contact us at hello@afritutor.co.uk.

3.What AfriTutor does

• We run the platform: tutor profiles, search, messaging, booking, payments, the lesson room and recordings.
• We check every tutor before they can teach (see Safeguarding) and review their profiles and later changes.
• Tutors are independent and self-employed. They aren't our employees, and they decide how to teach within our rules and guides.
• You book and pay through us, and we handle refunds under these terms. We're responsible to you for providing the booking, payment and lesson services as described here.

Tutoring can make a big difference, but we can't promise particular grades or exam results, as these depend on many things outside our control.

4.Accounts and who can use AfriTutor

• Parents and carers must be 18 or over. You create one account, add each child, book and pay for their lessons, and can join any lesson. You're responsible for your children's use of AfriTutor.
• Children don't need their own login. Children under 16 can only use AfriTutor through a parent's account.
• Students aged 16 or over (and adult learners) can sign up to book for themselves.
• Tutors must be 18 or over, and mentors 21 or over (25 or over to mentor parents or adults).
• Families in the UK book UK tutors and pay in pounds; families in Nigeria book Nigerian tutors and pay in naira. Choose the country you live in when you sign up. Only our team can change it.

Please give accurate details, keep your password private and don't share your account. Tell us straight away at hello@afritutor.co.uk if you think someone else has used it. You're responsible for what happens on your account unless it's our fault.

5.Booking lessons

• You can message a tutor for free before you book.
• Lessons are 30, 45 or 60 minutes, booked at least 24 hours ahead and up to 8 weeks ahead. You can book a single lesson or the same time every week for 2 to 12 weeks.
• You pay when you send a request. We hold the time for 35 minutes while you pay; if payment isn't completed, the request lapses.
• The tutor then has 24 hours to accept (or until 1 hour before the lesson, if that's sooner). A weekly series is accepted or declined as a whole.
• Your booking is confirmed when the tutor accepts it. If they decline or don't answer in time, you're refunded in full automatically.

6.Prices and payment

• There's no subscription and no sign-up fee. Each tutor sets their own hourly rate, shown on their profile. A 30 or 45-minute lesson costs that share of the hourly rate.
• The price you see when you send a request is the price you pay. It doesn't change after that, even if the tutor changes their rate.
• UK families pay in pounds through Stripe. Nigerian families pay in naira through Paystack. We never see or store your full card details.
• Always pay through AfriTutor. Never pay a tutor directly: payments made outside AfriTutor aren't protected by these terms.

7.Lesson packs

• A pack is 5 or 10 lessons with one tutor, for one lesson length, at 5% off the tutor's normal price. The price is fixed when you buy it.
• You use one credit each time you book a lesson from the pack. Pack lessons are paid straight away, so the tutor sees your request at once.
• Credits last 6 months from when you buy the pack.
• You can close a pack at any time and get the unused credits refunded at the pack price. Anything left after 6 months is refunded automatically.
• If a pack lesson is declined, isn't answered in time, or is cancelled 24 hours or more ahead, the credit goes back into your pack. A late cancellation or missed lesson uses the credit.

8.Cancellations, refunds and missed lessons

You can cancel a request or a lesson from your dashboard until the lesson starts. Each lesson in a weekly series can be cancelled on its own.

• Refunds go back to the card or account you paid with. Banks can take 5 to 10 days to show them.
• With a lesson pack, “refund” means the credit goes back into your pack (see Lesson packs).
• If you weren't happy with a lesson, email hello@afritutor.co.uk soon after. We'll look at what happened, including the recording, and can refund some or all of it.
• If we have to cancel a lesson, we'll tell you as soon as we can and refund you in full.

9.Your legal right to cancel

If you're a consumer in the UK, the law usually gives you 14 days from when you pay to change your mind about a service bought online (the “cooling-off period”).

If a lesson (or the first lesson of a weekly series) or a group session starts within 14 days of when you pay, we ask you to tick a box before you pay, confirming that you'd like it to go ahead within the cooling-off period. Lesson packs can be used straight away, so we always ask when you buy a pack. We record when you ticked the box. By asking for this, you agree that once a lesson or session has taken place you can't cancel it under the cooling-off period, and that if you cancel within the 14 days you may have to pay for what has already been provided. If the start is more than 14 days away, we don't ask, and you keep the full 14 days.

Our own cancellation rules above still apply, and they're more generous: you can cancel for free, with a full refund, up to 24 hours before a lesson or group session starts. Later cancellations and missed lessons aren't refunded, because the tutor or mentor kept the time for you. With a lesson pack, you can close the pack at any time (not just in the first 14 days) and get unused credits refunded at the pack price.

In Nigeria, you also have the rights given to consumers by the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Act 2018. Nothing in these terms takes away any of your legal rights.

10.Group sessions

• Group sessions are scheduled Life Skills sessions for 2 to 8 people, run by a checked mentor and approved by our team. You buy a seat, like a ticket.
• Who can book: sessions for teens (13 to 17) are booked by a parent for their child; young adults aged 16 or over can book for themselves or a parent can book for them; parents' and adults' (18+) sessions are booked by adults for themselves.
• We hold your seat for 35 minutes while you pay. If payment arrives after the hold ends, or the session has been cancelled, it's refunded.
• Cancel 24 hours or more before the start for a full refund. Later cancellations, and seats not used, aren't refunded.
• Each session needs a minimum number of people. If not enough have booked 24 hours before the start, we cancel it, refund everyone in full and email you.
• If the mentor or AfriTutor cancels, everyone is refunded in full.
• Sessions happen in AfriTutor's own recorded video room. Please be kind and respectful to everyone in the group, and don't share other people's personal details from the session.

11.Life Skills & Mentoring

Life Skills sessions (one-to-one or in a group) offer guidance and education on topics such as study skills, confidence, careers, money, parenting and relationships. They are not therapy, counselling, medical or mental health care, legal advice, or regulated financial advice, and mentors aren't acting as professionals in those fields. Please speak to a qualified professional for those needs.

If you or someone else is in danger or in crisis, contact emergency services (999 in the UK, 112 in Nigeria) or your doctor. One-to-one sessions are booked like lessons and follow the same price, cancellation and refund rules.

12.Lessons, recordings and staying on AfriTutor

• Lessons take place in the AfriTutor lesson room in your browser. It opens 10 minutes before the start and closes 15 minutes after the end. You'll need a laptop or tablet with a camera and microphone, a good internet connection and an up-to-date browser.
• Every lesson and group session is recorded, and there's no way to switch this off. The family and tutor can watch the recording for 30 days; we delete it after 90 days. By using the lesson room, you agree to being recorded. See our Privacy Policy.
• Please don't make your own recordings, screenshots or copies of other people in lessons without their permission.
• All contact between families and tutors must stay on AfriTutor. Don't share or ask for phone numbers, emails, social media or outside meeting links, and don't arrange lessons or payments outside AfriTutor with people you met here. Our system blocks contact details automatically.
• We work hard to keep AfriTutor running, but it may occasionally be unavailable, for example for maintenance or because of problems with the internet or our providers. If a lesson can't go ahead because of a problem on our side, tell us and we'll refund it or help you rearrange.

13.Rules for everyone

When you use AfriTutor, you must not:

• harass, bully, threaten, discriminate against or abuse anyone, or say or share anything sexual, hateful, violent or otherwise inappropriate, especially with or in front of a child;
• try to contact a learner or family outside AfriTutor, or meet them in person through AfriTutor;
• pretend to be someone else, give false information, or upload documents that aren't genuine;
• post anything that isn't yours to share, breaks someone's rights, or breaks the law;
• help students cheat, for example by doing graded coursework or exams for them;
• misuse the platform: try to get round the contact-detail filter, our payment system or our security, scrape data, or send spam or harmful software.

If something worries you, use the Report button on any message, or email hello@afritutor.co.uk.

14.Safeguarding

• Before anyone can teach, our team checks their identity, eligibility, qualifications, a recorded interview, two references and a background check (an Enhanced DBS certificate in the UK, or a police character certificate in Nigeria).
• Parents can join any lesson for their child, and every lesson is recorded.
• Anyone who sees or hears something worrying should report it to us at once. If a child is in immediate danger, call 999 in the UK or 112 in Nigeria first.
• We take every concern seriously. We may pause or suspend accounts while we look into a concern, and we may share information with the police, social services, schools or other authorities where someone may be at risk (see our Privacy Policy).

Our checks lower risk but can't remove it completely. Please stay involved in your child's learning and tell us about anything that doesn't feel right.

15.Reviews

• Families (parents and students) who have had a lesson with a tutor can review them: 1 to 5 stars and an optional written review. One review per tutor, which you can update.
• Reviews go live straight away and show your first name and whether you're a parent or student. Tutors can reply once and can report a review.
• Reviews must be honest, about your own experience, and follow the rules above. They can't include contact details or anyone's private information.
• We don't pay for, edit or hand-pick reviews. We may hide reviews that break these rules.

16.Extra terms for tutors and mentors

Applying

• You must meet our published eligibility rules, including age, qualifications, the right to work on a self-employed basis in the country you tutor in, and living in that country.
• You'll complete a recorded interview, give two referees and upload your identity document, qualifications and background check. Everything you give us must be true and genuine.
• Our team decides whether to approve you, and may ask for more information. We can decline an application, and we'll tell you if we do.
• Changes to your headline, introduction and photo are reviewed before they go live.

Working with families

• You're an independent, self-employed tutor, not our employee, agent or partner. You're responsible for your own tax, national insurance or other contributions, and any registrations you need.
• You set your hourly rate within our limits (£5 to £500 in the UK, ₦1,000 to ₦500,000 in Nigeria) and your weekly availability.
• Please answer requests within the time shown, turn up on time and prepared, and only cancel if you really must. If you cancel, the family is refunded in full.
• Before adding subjects at a level, read and agree to our teaching guide for that level (qualified teachers are exempt). Mentors must agree to our guide for each Life Skills topic and audience and teach from it. You agree to follow the guides you've accepted, including their safeguarding steps.
• Group sessions you create are reviewed by our team before they go live.

Fees and payouts

• You keep 80% of the price of each lesson or group seat. AfriTutor keeps 20%, which covers payments, the lesson room, recordings and support. For pack lessons, you still earn 80% of your full price; the 5% pack discount comes out of AfriTutor's share.
• Your share becomes payable 24 hours after the lesson ends. In the UK, we pay it into your Stripe account and Stripe pays it to your bank. In Nigeria, we send one Paystack bank transfer a week for your finished lessons. You need to set up your payout account first, and agree to Stripe's or Paystack's own terms.
• If a family cancels less than 24 hours before a lesson, or doesn't come, you're still paid.
• If we refund a family for a problem with a lesson (for example, you were very late or didn't come) before you've been paid for it, your share goes down in proportion. We'll tell you why.
• Never take payment from a family directly.

17.Schools and sponsors

When a school or sponsor arranges a tutoring programme, we agree a plan and a price in writing first. That agreement covers the programme, prices, invoicing and how we share safeguarding concerns and progress reports. UK schools are invoiced in pounds by AfriTutor Ltd; Nigerian schools are invoiced in naira. If that agreement conflicts with these terms, the agreement applies. Pupils and families taking part must still follow these terms when they use AfriTutor.

18.Content and intellectual property

• AfriTutor's name, logo, website, software, teaching guides and mentor guides belong to us (or the people who license them to us).
• Tutors can use our guides to plan and teach lessons on AfriTutor, but not to teach elsewhere or to share or sell.
• Tutors keep ownership of their own teaching materials. By using them on AfriTutor, you give us permission to store and show them as part of the service (for example, on the whiteboard and in recordings).
• You keep ownership of what you write (such as profiles, messages and reviews), and give us permission to use it to run AfriTutor. For tutors, this includes showing your profile publicly and in search.
• Families can use lesson recordings and whiteboards for their own learning, but not share them publicly.

19.Suspending or closing accounts

• You can stop using AfriTutor at any time. To close your account, email hello@afritutor.co.uk. Lessons you've already booked follow the cancellation rules above, and unused pack credits are refunded.
• We may suspend or close an account if someone breaks these terms, if we have a safeguarding concern, to prevent fraud, or if the law requires it. Where it's safe to, we'll tell you why. A suspended account can sign in to see its status but can't book, teach or message, and a suspended tutor can't be found or booked.
• If we close your account, or stop offering a service, without it being your fault, we'll refund any lessons you've paid for but not had.
• We may keep some information after an account closes, as explained in our Privacy Policy.

20.Our responsibility to you

• We provide our service with reasonable care and skill, and as described in these terms.
• If we break these terms, we're responsible for loss you suffer that was a foreseeable result of that. We aren't responsible for loss that wasn't foreseeable, or that was caused by something outside our reasonable control.
• If you're a family using AfriTutor for personal reasons, we aren't responsible for business losses (such as lost profit or income).
• We aren't responsible for what tutors or other users say or do outside what we're responsible for under these terms, although we will act on every concern you report.
• Nothing in these terms limits our responsibility for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud, or for anything else the law doesn't allow us to limit, and nothing affects your legal rights as a consumer.

21.Complaints

If something has gone wrong, please tell us at hello@afritutor.co.uk, or on our WhatsApp line, and say what happened and what you'd like us to do. We aim to reply within 2 working days and to sort things out fairly and quickly, including looking at the lesson recording where that helps.

If you're still unhappy, you can go to court (see below). In Nigeria, you can also contact the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC). Complaints about personal information can also go to the ICO or the Nigeria Data Protection Commission (see our Privacy Policy).

22.Which laws apply

• UK: these terms are governed by the law of England and Wales, and you can bring claims in the courts of England and Wales. If you live in Scotland or Northern Ireland, you can also bring claims in your local courts, and the consumer laws of where you live still protect you.
• Nigeria: if you use AfriTutor in Nigeria, these terms are governed by the laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and you can bring claims in the Nigerian courts. This doesn't take away any protection you have under Nigerian consumer law.

23.Changes to these terms

We may update these terms, for example when we add features, change our prices or rules, or the law changes. We'll change the date at the top, and tell you about important changes by email or in your dashboard before they take effect. Changes won't affect lessons you've already paid for. If you don't agree with a change, you can close your account before it takes effect.

If a court decides part of these terms can't be enforced, the rest still applies. If we don't enforce a term straight away, we can still do so later. Nobody else has rights under these terms. Questions? Email hello@afritutor.co.uk.