Terms of Service

01The agreement

These Terms of Service (the “Terms”) are a binding agreement between you and Nuru Shillings (“Nuru”, “we”, “us”, “our”). They govern your access to and use of the Nuru website, the personal wallet, the developer dashboard, the payments API, the sandbox, and any related service we provide (together, the “Service”).

You accept these Terms when you create an account by continuing past the sign-up notice that links to them, hold a balance, send or accept a payment, or call the API. If you accept them on behalf of a company, you confirm that you are authorised to bind that company, and “you” means both you and that company.

The Privacy Notice and the Security page form part of these Terms. If you do not agree, do not create an account and do not send a live payment.

02Definitions

Nuru Shillings (NSH)

The unit of value recorded in a Nuru wallet. 100 NSH equal 1 US dollar.

Wallet

The personal account that holds a balance of Nuru Shillings and records money added, payments sent, refunds received, and withdrawals.

Company

The business named on a payment. It is the seller of the goods, service, or access the buyer is paying for.

Developer

The account holder who connects a platform to the API using a test key or a live key.

Payment

A request created through POST /v1/payments, identified by a payment id, with a status of paid or refused.

Fee

The 1% charge paid by the company on a payment that reaches the status paid.

Payment method

PayPal, a supported card, or M-Pesa, used to add money to a wallet or to receive a withdrawal.

Verification

The one-time step in which you confirm the name on the account and your country.

03Who can use Nuru

To open an account you must:

• be at least 18 years old, or the age of legal majority where you live if that is higher;
• be able to form a binding contract under the law that applies to you;
• not be barred from receiving financial services under the law that applies to you or to Nuru, including any sanctions law;
• give true, current, and complete information, and keep it up to date.

You may hold one account per person. A company may use more than one account for Business tools if each one is used for a real platform and is verified.

04The service

Nuru is payment infrastructure. A person can buy Nuru Shillings, hold them, and spend them on any platform that connects the API. A company can take that payment inside its own product. Checkout shows the company name only. The payment record is marked chain: "private" and is not written to a public ledger.

Nuru is not a bank, an investment product, or a savings account. A balance does not earn interest and is not covered by a deposit-insurance scheme. Nuru Shillings are not a share, a security, or a speculative asset; their value is fixed at the rate in section 07.

Nuru moves value between a wallet and a company and returns the result to the platform. Nuru is not the seller of what a company sells, and it is not a party to the sale between the buyer and the company.

05Your account and sign-in

You open an account with your email address. We send a sign-in link to that address; opening the link creates the account and signs you in. There is no password. Every account starts with a personal wallet, and the same account can open Business tools to accept payments.

Each sign-in link works once and expires after 20 minutes. A session lasts up to 30 days on the device where you opened the link, or until you log out. Nuru does not offer sign-in through Google or any other company, and no other company can open a session on your behalf.

You are responsible for:

• keeping your email account secure, because access to it lets someone sign in to Nuru;
• keeping every sign-in link and every API key confidential;
• all activity that happens through your account or your keys, unless you told us it was compromised before that activity;
• signing out on a shared device;
• telling us at once at supportnorashillings@benuru.com if you believe someone else has used your account or a key.

We will never ask you to forward a sign-in link or to share your secret key, your M-Pesa PIN, or your card security code. Anyone who does is not acting for Nuru.

06Verification

Before live money moves, you verify yourself by confirming the name on the account and your country. Verification is free and is done once.

Until verification is complete:

• a wallet cannot add money, pay a company, or withdraw;
• Business tools cannot create a live key;
• the test key and the sandbox work, but they never move a live balance.

We may ask for more information if the details given do not match, if a payment method rejects them, or if the law that applies to Nuru requires it. If verification cannot be completed, we may refuse to activate live payments.

07The rate

100 Nuru Shillings equal 1 US dollar. That single rate is used to buy, to value a payment, to calculate the fee, to refund, and to sell back. Nuru does not quote a second rate and does not add a spread.

If you add money in a currency other than US dollars, your payment method converts it to US dollars under its own terms before Nuru records the balance. Nuru does not control that conversion.

08Fees

On a paid payment of 1,800 NSH, the fee is 18 NSH and the company receives 1,782 NSH. The buyer pays exactly the amount shown at checkout; Nuru adds nothing on top.

PayPal, your card issuer, or your mobile-money provider may charge their own fees under their own terms. Those fees are not Nuru fees and are not collected by Nuru.

We may change a fee only by giving you at least 30 days’ notice by email and on this page. A change never applies to a payment created before the change takes effect.

09Adding money

A verified wallet can add money with PayPal, a supported card (Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover, JCB, Diners Club), or M-Pesa. The balance is credited at 100 NSH per 1 US dollar once the payment method confirms the funds.

You must only use a payment method that belongs to you or that you are authorised to use. We may decline to add money if the payment method declines, if the details do not match the verified account, or if the request breaks section 17.

10The wallet and your balance

Your balance is the Nuru Shillings recorded in your wallet after every addition, payment, refund, and withdrawal. You cannot spend or withdraw more than the available balance, and a wallet cannot go below zero.

Your activity list shows each movement with its amount, its direction, and, for a payment, the company name and payment id. Check your activity regularly and tell us within 60 days if you see something you did not authorise.

You may not sell, transfer, or assign your wallet to another person.

11Paying a company

When you pay, you authorise Nuru to move the amount shown from your wallet to the company named on checkout. A payment is final once its status is paid, except for a refund under section 12.

The company is solely responsible for the goods, service, or access it sells, for its own pricing and description, for delivery, for its own refund policy, and for any taxes on its sale. Nuru does not decide disputes about the quality of what a company sold. If you have a complaint about a purchase, contact the company first and give it the payment id.

Nuru may refuse a payment, in which case it has the status refused, your balance does not change, and no fee is charged.

12Refunds, refusals, and errors

A company refunds by sending the original payment id to POST /v1/refunds. The full amount returns to the buyer’s wallet at 100 NSH to 1 USD, and the 1% fee charged on that payment is returned to the company. Each payment can be refunded once and only up to its original amount.

If a payment was recorded in error, for example a duplicate created by a platform fault, we may correct it by reversing it and will show the correction in the activity list. If Nuru credits your wallet by mistake, you must not spend that amount and we may remove it.

13Selling and withdrawing

You may sell your balance back at 100 NSH to 1 USD and withdraw it to PayPal, a supported card, or M-Pesa in your verified name. Nuru charges nothing to withdraw.

We start a withdrawal when you submit it. The time it takes to arrive depends on the method you chose. A withdrawal is complete when that method accepts it. If the method rejects it, the amount returns to your wallet.

You are responsible for giving the correct account, card, or phone number. If you give wrong details and the method accepts the funds, we may be unable to recover them.

14Chargebacks and reversed funding

If money you added is later reversed by PayPal, your card issuer, or your mobile-money provider, for example through a chargeback, we will remove the matching amount from your wallet. If the balance is not enough, the wallet shows a negative amount owed, live payments and withdrawals are paused, and you agree to repay it.

Opening a chargeback for money you added and spent yourself is a breach of these Terms.

15Developers and the API

Business tools let you create a test key (nsh_test_…) and, after verification, a live key (nsh_live_…). A key is shown in full once, when it is created; we keep only a one-way hash of it. Replacing a key stops the old one at once.

Subject to these Terms, we grant you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable licence to use the API and the documentation to accept payments in your own platform.

The available routes are POST /v1/payments, GET /v1/payments/:id, POST /v1/refunds, POST /v1/webhooks, GET /v1/webhooks, and POST /v1/webhooks/test. The base URL is https://norashillings.benuru.com/v1. A nsh_test_ key works in Sandbox and a nsh_live_ key works in Live.

As a developer you must:

• keep secret keys on your server, never in a web page, a mobile app bundle, a public repository, or an email;
• send only the fields a payment needs: amount, unit, reference, and company. Do not put the buyer’s name or contact details in the reference;
• store the reference you sent and match it to the payment id you receive;
• fulfil an order only after you confirm the status is paid;
• show your customers your own terms, refund policy, and contact details;
• not resell, sublicense, or wrap the API for a third party without our written consent;
• not reverse-engineer, overload, or probe the API beyond normal use.

We may limit the rate of requests to protect the Service. The sandbox and the test key are for testing; they never move a live balance and have no fee.

16Webhooks

You may save an endpoint with POST /v1/webhooks. The URL must use https. Nuru sends payment.paid and payment.refunded events with the event id, the type, the payment id, the reference, and the status.

You are responsible for your endpoint being available, for handling an event more than once without double-fulfilling, and for confirming the payment with GET /v1/payments/:id before you deliver. A webhook that fails to reach you does not change the status of the payment.

17Acceptable use

You must not use Nuru, directly or through a platform, to:

• commit or help with fraud, theft, or deception, including fake goods or orders you do not intend to fulfil;
• launder money, finance terrorism, or evade sanctions;
• sell anything that is illegal where the buyer or the company is located;
• sell weapons, illegal drugs, stolen data, or material that exploits children;
• run unlicensed gambling, pyramid or Ponzi schemes, or “guaranteed return” investments;
• hide a transaction from a lawful request by an authority that has power over you or over Nuru;
• open accounts with a script, use another person’s identity, or hold more than one personal wallet;
• test stolen cards or payment details;
• attack, scrape, or interfere with the Service, or try to access another account.

Privacy on Nuru means a payment is not exposed on a public ledger and a buyer’s name is not shown on checkout. It does not mean Nuru will help anyone break the law.

18Compliance and lawful requests

We may review a payment, pause it, or ask you for information to meet our legal duties, including rules on fraud, money laundering, and sanctions. If an authority with power over Nuru makes a lawful request for a record, we may be required to provide it. Where the law allows, we will tell you before we do.

You are responsible for any taxes that apply to your sales, your income, or your use of the Service.

19Privacy

How we collect, use, share, and keep personal information is described in the Privacy Notice. A company that receives payment data through the API is responsible for how it handles that data in its own systems.

20Intellectual property

The Nuru name, the circle mark, the website, the dashboards, the API design, and the documentation belong to Nuru. These Terms do not give you any right to them except the limited licence in section 15. You may say that your platform “accepts Nuru Shillings”, but you may not suggest that Nuru endorses your business.

If you send us feedback, we may use it without any obligation to you.

21Availability and changes to the Service

We work to keep the Service available, but we do not promise it will be uninterrupted or free of errors. We may carry out maintenance, and we may change, add, or remove features. If we remove a feature you rely on for live payments, we will give reasonable notice where we can.

22Suspension and closing an account

You may close your account at any time by writing to us from the email address on the account. Before it closes, you can withdraw your available balance. Pending refunds and amounts owed under section 14 must be settled first.

We may suspend or close an account, or refuse a live key, if:

• the account breaks these Terms, including section 17;
• verification cannot be completed or the information given is false;
• we must do so to meet a legal duty or a lawful order;
• we reasonably believe the account is being used for fraud, or that a key is compromised.

We will tell you the reason where the law allows. If we close an account and the balance is lawfully yours, we will return it to a payment method in your verified name. A suspension does not change the amount or rate of a payment already recorded as paid.

23Inactive accounts

If an account has no sign-in and no activity for 24 months, we will email you before we take any step. Your balance stays yours. If the law requires inactive balances to be handed to an authority, we will follow that law and tell you how to claim it.

24Disclaimers

To the extent the law allows, the Service is provided “as is” and “as available”. Nuru does not give any warranty, express or implied, including of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, or non-infringement, beyond what these Terms state.

Nuru does not guarantee the goods or services a company sells, the conduct of a company, or the availability of PayPal, a card network, or M-Pesa. Nothing on this site is legal, tax, or financial advice.

25Limitation of liability

To the extent the law allows, Nuru is not liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive loss, or for lost profits, revenue, data, or goodwill.

Nuru’s total liability to you for all claims about the Service in any 12-month period is limited to the greater of (a) the fees you paid to Nuru in the 12 months before the claim, or (b) 100 US dollars. This limit does not apply to the balance recorded in your wallet, which remains yours.

Nothing in these Terms limits liability that cannot be limited by law, including for fraud, or for death or personal injury caused by negligence, or your rights as a consumer under the mandatory law of the country where you live.

26Indemnity

If you use Nuru as a company or a developer, you agree to cover Nuru for losses, claims, and reasonable legal costs that arise from what you sell, from your breach of these Terms, or from your breach of law, including a claim by your own customer.

27Complaints and disputes

If something goes wrong, write to supportnorashillings@benuru.com with the payment id, the date, and what happened. We will acknowledge a complaint within 5 business days and aim to give a full answer within 30 days.

If we cannot resolve it, either side may take the dispute to the courts set out in section 28. If you are a consumer, you may also use any dispute-resolution scheme or court available to you under the law of the country where you live.

28Governing law

These Terms are governed by the laws of the country in which Nuru Shillings is registered, without regard to conflict-of-law rules. The courts of that country have jurisdiction, except that a consumer may also bring a claim in the courts of the country where they live and keeps the protection of that country’s mandatory law.

29Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms. When we do, the “Last updated” date at the top of this page changes. If a change materially reduces your rights or increases what you pay, we will email you at least 30 days before it takes effect. If you do not agree, you may close your account and withdraw your balance before that date at no cost. Continuing to use the Service after the effective date means you accept the new Terms.

30General

• Entire agreement. These Terms, the Privacy Notice, and the Security page are the whole agreement between you and Nuru about the Service.
• Assignment. You may not transfer your rights under these Terms without our consent. We may transfer them to a successor that takes over the Service and agrees to honour them.
• Severability. If a court finds part of these Terms unenforceable, the rest stays in force.
• No waiver. If we do not enforce a right at once, we have not given it up.
• Events outside our control. We are not responsible for a delay or failure caused by events we could not reasonably control, such as an outage at a payment method, a network failure, or an order of an authority.
• Notices. We send notices to the email address on your account. You send notices to supportnorashillings@benuru.com.
• Language. These Terms are written in English. A translation is for convenience; the English version applies.

31Contact

Questions about these Terms go to supportnorashillings@benuru.com. Include the payment id if the question is about a payment. Never send a sign-in link or a secret API key.

Nuru Shillings · Terms of Service · Version 10 October 2026