Terms of Service — All Business Africa

1. Agreement and who we are

These Terms of Service (“Terms”) are a binding agreement between you and PoliWatch Africa [full legal entity name, registration number, registered address] (“ABA”, “we”, “us”), the owner and operator of the All Business Africa platform at allbusiness.africa (the “Platform”). PANEOTECH is the Platform’s technology partner and operates its infrastructure on our behalf.

By accessing or using the Platform — with or without an account — you accept these Terms and our [Privacy Policy]. If you use the Platform on behalf of an organization, you confirm you are authorized to bind that organization, and “you” includes it. If you do not agree, do not use the Platform.

2. What the Platform is

The Platform is an open reference and working toolset for the African business ecosystem, including:

• a directory of companies, investors, institutions, and business people;
• a database of funding opportunities, tenders, and programs;
• ABA’AI, a set of AI-assisted tools (Assessment, Document Analysis, Data Extraction, Smart Pre-fill);
• investment and deal-tracking features;
• a Knowledge Hub of articles and insights;
• events listings and a marketplace for professional listings.

We may add, change, suspend, or retire features at any time. Some features depend on your plan or account status (Section 5).

3. Eligibility and accounts

You must be at least 18 years old and able to form a binding contract. When you create an account you agree to provide accurate information, keep it updated, keep your credentials confidential, and accept responsibility for all activity under your account. Notify us immediately at [support@allbusiness.africa] of any suspected unauthorized use. One person per account; do not share credentials or impersonate anyone.

4. Claiming and verifying organization profiles

You may claim or create a profile only for an organization you are authorized to represent. Claimed profiles may be marked as verified submissions. We may request evidence of authority, and we may remove or reassign a profile that was claimed without authority.

5. Plans, pricing, and changes

The Platform is currently free to use. We may introduce paid plans in the future; if we do, pricing, billing terms, and any changes to which features are free will be published before they take effect, and paid features will never be charged to you without your explicit sign-up. Feature availability may be managed per plan through the Platform’s plan settings.

6. Your content

“Your Content” means anything you submit: organization profiles, data fields, logos and images, documents, corrections, marketplace listings, event entries, and messages.

• License. You retain ownership of Your Content. You grant ABA a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to host, store, reproduce, adapt (for formatting and indexing), publish, translate, and display Your Content in connection with operating, improving, and promoting the Platform, for as long as it remains part of the Platform, and thereafter as needed for backups, audit, and legal compliance.
• Your promises. You confirm Your Content is accurate to the best of your knowledge, lawful, and does not infringe anyone’s rights; that you have all necessary rights and authority to submit it (including over any personal data of others it contains); and that it contains no malware or deceptive material.
• Public by design. Profiles, verified badges, corrections that are accepted, marketplace listings, and similar contributions are published as part of the open reference and may be viewed, cited, and shared by others.
• Moderation. We may review, edit for format, decline, or remove any content that violates these Terms, our editorial standards, or the law. We are not obligated to pre-screen content.

7. Directory records, corrections, and removal

The directory includes records about organizations and business people compiled from public sources, filings, partner datasets, and submissions (see the Privacy Policy, Section 8). If a record about you or your organization is inaccurate, use the Platform’s correction workflow — accurate correction is our preferred remedy. Requests for removal of lawfully published professional information are assessed against accuracy, provenance, applicable law, and the public interest in the record. We are a reference, not a reputation-management service: we will always correct errors, but we do not delete accurate, sourced records merely because they are unwelcome.

8. Acceptable use

You agree not to:

• scrape, crawl, harvest, or bulk-download Platform data, whether manually or by automated means, or circumvent rate limits, access controls, or technical protections;
• resell, sublicense, or redistribute Platform data as a dataset, feed, or competing service, or use it to build or train a competing database or model;
• access the Platform through any automated interface other than APIs we document and authorize, within their published limits;
• submit false, misleading, defamatory, or infringing content; misrepresent your identity or authority; or post spam or unsolicited promotions outside the marketplace features;
• upload malware, probe or test the vulnerability of any system, or interfere with the Platform, its infrastructure, or other users (including excessive request volumes);
• misuse ABA’AI (Section 9), including attempting to extract other users’ data, generate unlawful content, or evade usage quotas;
• use the Platform for money laundering, sanctions evasion, fraud, or any unlawful purpose.

Permitted use for clarity: normal professional use — searching, viewing, citing records with attribution and a link to the Platform, exporting the limited extracts the interface itself provides, and quoting reasonable excerpts in your own work — is welcome.

We may investigate violations, throttle or block access, remove content, and suspend or terminate accounts, and may report unlawful activity to authorities.

9. ABA’AI — terms for the AI tools

• Nature of outputs. ABA’AI features generate content automatically using artificial intelligence. Outputs may be inaccurate, incomplete, outdated, or misleading, and may not reflect the most current record. You must independently verify any output before relying on it.
• Not advice. Assessments, analyses, extractions, and pre-filled content are informational tools only. They are not investment, legal, tax, accounting, procurement, or other professional advice, and no output creates an adviser-client relationship.
• Your inputs. Submit only content you have the right to submit. You are responsible for confidential or personal information contained in documents you upload (see Privacy Policy, Section 5).
• Your outputs. As between you and ABA, you may use outputs generated from your inputs for your own lawful business purposes. You may not present outputs as ABA’s official statements or use them to violate Section 8.
• Quotas. AI features may be subject to fair-use quotas or plan limits, which we may adjust to keep the service available to everyone.

10. Information disclaimer — read this section carefully

11. Intellectual property and database rights

The Platform — its software, design, structure, branding, editorial content, and the selection and arrangement of its databases — is owned by ABA and its licensors and protected by copyright, database, and trademark laws. We grant you a limited, revocable, non-exclusive, non-transferable license to access and use the Platform for your internal professional purposes in accordance with these Terms. No other rights are granted. “All Business Africa,” “ABA,” “ABA’AI,” and associated logos are our marks; do not use them without written permission, except for accurate citation with a link.

If you believe content on the Platform infringes your rights, notify [legal@allbusiness.africa] with the record URL, the basis of your claim, and your contact details.

12. Marketplace, events, and third parties

Marketplace listings and event entries are posted by their respective organizers and sellers. Unless expressly stated, ABA is not a party to any transaction, engagement, or contract between users, does not vet counterparties, and does not guarantee any listing, product, service, or event. Deal with other users at your own judgment. Links to third-party sites are provided for convenience; we are not responsible for their content or practices.

13. Privacy

Our collection and use of personal information — including how we handle directory records about people and documents uploaded to ABA’AI — is described in the [Privacy Policy], which forms part of these Terms.

14. Suspension and termination

You may close your account at any time. We may suspend or terminate your access, remove content, or restrict features, with or without notice, if we reasonably believe you have violated these Terms or the law, pose a risk to the Platform or its users, or if required by law. Sections that by their nature should survive (including 6 (license), 8, 10, 11, 15–18) survive termination. On termination, published open-reference records (e.g., an organization profile that is part of the directory) may remain, subject to the Privacy Policy.

15. Disclaimers

Except as expressly stated, the Platform is provided “as is” and “as available”, without warranties of any kind, express or implied, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, accuracy, availability, and non-infringement. We do not warrant that the Platform will be uninterrupted, secure, or error-free, or that data will not be lost. Nothing in these Terms excludes rights that applicable consumer or data protection law does not allow to be excluded.

16. Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law: ABA, PoliWatch Africa, PANEOTECH, and their officers, employees, and partners shall not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or for lost profits, lost opportunities, lost data, or business interruption, arising from or related to the Platform or its content — including reliance on any record, listing, or AI output — even if advised of the possibility. Our total aggregate liability for all claims in any 12-month period shall not exceed the greater of (a) the amounts you paid us for the Platform in that period, or (b) [USD 100]. Nothing limits liability that cannot lawfully be limited, including for fraud or for death or personal injury caused by negligence.

17. Indemnity

You will indemnify and hold harmless ABA, PoliWatch Africa, and PANEOTECH from claims, damages, and reasonable costs (including legal fees) arising from Your Content, your use of the Platform in violation of these Terms, or your infringement of any law or third-party right.

18. Governing law and disputes

These Terms are governed by the laws of [the Republic of Kenya — confirm with counsel; alternatives: South Africa], without regard to conflict-of-law rules. Disputes shall be resolved by [the courts of [Nairobi] / arbitration under [rules, seat] — choose one]. Before formal proceedings, both parties agree to attempt good-faith resolution via [legal@allbusiness.africa] for at least 30 days. Nothing prevents either party from seeking urgent injunctive relief in any competent court.

19. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms as the Platform evolves. Material changes will be announced on the Platform and, for account holders, by email at least [14] days before they take effect. Continued use after the effective date constitutes acceptance. If you do not agree, stop using the Platform and close your account.

20. General

These Terms and the Privacy Policy are the entire agreement between you and ABA regarding the Platform. If any provision is found unenforceable, the rest remain in effect. Our failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver. You may not assign these Terms; we may assign them to a successor of the Platform. We are not liable for delays or failures caused by events beyond our reasonable control.

21. Contact

PoliWatch Africa — [registered address]
General: [support@allbusiness.africa] · Legal: [legal@allbusiness.africa] · Privacy: [privacy@allbusiness.africa]