Siinqee Bank Service Terms

TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR THE OPENING AND USE OF SIINQEE BANK MICRO CREDIT SERVICES

1. The Agreement

I. This Agreement sets out the complete Terms and Conditions (hereinafter called "These Terms and Conditions") which shall be applicable to Siinqee bank service.

II. These terms and conditions, as well as any related amendments or changes, will become effective once the credit customer has read and accepted them (by clicking on the option to accept).

2. Definitions

In these Terms and Conditions, the following words and expressions bear the following meanings:

  • "Siinqee bank" means a regulated financial institution agreed to provide mobile financial services to telebirr customers in collaboration with Ethio telecom.
  • "Ethio telecom" means a licensed payment instrument issuer who is agreed to providing mobile financial services to its telebirr customers in collaboration with Siinqee bank.
  • "National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE)" means a supervising authority, established in accordance with Proclamation No. 591/2008;
  • "telebirr" means trade name of Ethio telecom mobile money service used to access financial services such as to store, send, receive money, micro credit, micro insurance, pension, and micro saving services using their mobile phones.
  • "telebirr Account" means your mobile money store of value, which is the record kept by Ethio telecom of the amount of E-Money you have in the telebirr System from time to time.
  • "5, 10, 30 and 45 days credit Service" means financial service provided by Siinqee bank and enables telebirr customers to access credit service through telebirr channels in accordance with the terms and conditions set forth below.
  • "Salary Credit service" means a credit service provided by the Siinqee bank via Ethio telecom's telebirr platform to employees of private and public institutions whose monthly salaries are paid through telebirr service.
  • "Merchant Credit service" means a credit service provided by the Siinqee bank via Ethio telecom's telebirr platform to merchants for their working fund & business expansion purpose.
  • "Customer" means any individual who subscribe mobile financial service.
  • "E-Money" means the electronic monetary value depicted in customers telebirr Account representing an equal amount of cash.
  • "You" or "your" means the individual customer and includes the personal representatives of the individual.
  • "We," "our," and "us," means Siinqee bank and Ethio telecom.
  • "Transaction Fees" means the fee that includes the Facilitation Fee, access fee, Penalty and any other fees and charges payable for the use of Siinqee bank financial service.
  • "Facilitation fee" means the amount of fee paid by customers for the processing of Siinqee bank services to be collected via telebirr by Ethio telecom.
  • "Penalty fee" means the fee which the customers will be charged if they fail to honor their commitments on time.
  • "Due date" means the time marked as on time (active credit period).
  • "Bad debit" means any credit amount not collected as per the repayment schedule and overdue for one or more days.
  • "Words importing the singular meaning where the context so admits include the plural meaning and vice versa.
  • "The word “individual" shall include both the masculine and the feminine gender.

3. Acceptance of the Terms and Conditions

  • Before applying to use Siinqee bank micro credit service, you should carefully read and understand these Terms and Conditions that will govern the use and operation of Siinqee bank micro credit Account.
  • If you do not agree with these Terms and Conditions, please click "Cancel" on the Menu.
  • You will be deemed to have read, understood, and accepted these Terms and Conditions:
    • Upon clicking on the " Agree" option on the Menu requesting you to confirm that you have read, understood, and agreed to abide with these Terms and Conditions; and/or by using or continuing to use and operate Siinqee bank micro credit Service.
  • You acknowledge and accept the Siinqee bank micro credit service only electronically and you agree to do business with Ethio telecom and to operate the Siinqee bank service only by electronic means via telebirr system.
  • The terms and conditions may be modified or changed at any time by Ethio telecom and Siinqee bank and will be binding on the customer from the date they are published on the telebirr App, portal, or website.
  • From the time it is accepted electronically, these terms and conditions become a legally binding agreement between you and us. You are not allowed to transfer any of your rights or obligations under this agreement to anyone else.
  • The customer agrees to use the credit for legitimate purposes;

4. Activation for Siinqee bank Service

  • To activate Siinqee bank micro credit service with Ethio telecom and Siinqee bank, you must be at least:
    • Able to read, understood and accept these terms and conditions.
    • 18-year-old and Above.
    • Have an Ethio telecom active SIM card.
    • Active user of telebirr and Ethio telecom products such as Data/Voice/SMS.
    • Stay on network for three months after registered for SIM card and telebirr service.
  • To activate the Siinqee bank service, customers shall use USSD *127# or telebirr superapp2.

5. Eligibility Criteria to Get Siinqee bank micro credit Service

  • A customer's borrowing capacity is determined by his or her 6-month telebirr transaction and telecom usage prior to the date of the Siinqee bank micro credit service request. The telebirr transactions listed below are used to determine a customer's credit worthiness.
    • Purchase airtime
    • Packages purchase
    • Buy goods/service
    • Pay bills
    • Utility payment
    • Bulk disbursement
    • Receive Remittance
    • Ticket purchase
    • Fundraising payment
    • Cash in & Out
    • Send money
    • Credit repayment
    • Saving
    • Telecom usage like Voice, Data and SMS etc.
  • However, for Siniqee Salary Credit, receiving salary via telebirr will be enough.

6. Credit Amount and Fees.

  • You can borrow any amount between the minimum and maximum amount permitted.
  • You will get the requested credit amount and it will be credited to your main telebirr account (customer e-money account).
  • You should repay your previous credit first to get another credit.
  • You can pay your credit partially or fully;
  • If you fail to pay within the due date, you will be penalized 0.11% penalty per day.
  • After the due date, the lender will take the outstanding credit amount from your e-money account automatically if you do not repay on time.
  • The maximum credit amount for 5 Days, 10 Days, 30 Days, and 45 Days is 5,000 Br, 6,000 Br, 15,000 Br, and 30,000 Br, respectively. Whereas the minimum credit amount for the aforementioned credit days is 100 Br, 100 Br, 200 Br, and 5,000 Br, respectively.
  • If you repay your 5 Days and 10 Days credit within the due date, you will be charged a facilitation fee of 1.5 % & 2% on day one respectively and you will be charged a daily fee from 0.350 % - 1.20% & 0.30% - 0.90% for above-mentioned credit days respectively for the rest of repayment period.
  • If you repay your 30 Days credit within the due date, you will be charged a facilitation fee of 4% on day one and you will be charged a daily fee from 0.30% - 1.00% for the rest of repayment period.
  • If you repay your 45 Days credit within the due date, you will be charged a facilitation fee of 6.5% on day one and you will be charged a daily fee from 0.50 % - 0.67% for the rest of repayment period.
  • The maximum credit amount for Salary Credit is 1,000,000 Birr whereas the minimum salary Credit is 1,000 Birr With total facilitation fee of 19.5% and monthly fee of 1.39%.
  • The maximum credit amount for merchant Credit of 1 month, 3 months & 6 Months is 30,000 Birr, 150,000 & 250,000 respectively whereas the minimum merchant Credit is 5,000 Birr With total facilitation fee of 6%, 15% and 21% and monthly fee of 6%, 5%, and 3.5% aforementioned credit months respectively.
  • The bonus/incentive will not be applicable for Siinqee bank service repayment.
  • Siinqee bank, in collaboration with Ethio telecom, offers this credit service. Siinqee bank owns and controls the money used to provide credit services. In the event of a defaulted or overdue Credit, we have full legal authority to sue in a regular court. We are free to pursue alternatives to litigation.
  • The bank has the right to collect the Nonperforming Credit (NPL) from customers' bank account and is free to pursue alternatives to litigation.

7. Governing Law

The laws of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, the directives of the National Bank of Ethiopia, as well as the relevant procedures of the Siinqee bank and Ethio telecom shall govern these Terms and Conditions.

8. Queries.

For any question related to services, process, terms & conditions of individual Siinqee bank service, you can get through telebirr Customer contact Centre (by dialing 127).

9. Termination

We shall be entitled to suspend or terminate this agreement wholly or partially due to your abuse, misuse, or fraud of any of the micro saving and Credit services with or without prior notice to you. Any termination of this contract in completely or in part may not affect any accrued rights and obligations of either party.

10. Complaints

Complaints may be made in person, in writing, by post, fax, email or by telephone. Ethio telecom will take all measures within its means to resolve your complaints within a reasonable time. If you are dissatisfied with the response, you can escalate the matter to Siinqee bank and National Bank of Ethiopia sequentially.

11. Dispute Resolution

Any dispute arising out of or in connection with this Agreement that is not resolved as per Clause 11 above shall be referred to Federal court of Ethiopia having jurisdiction over the case

12. Lien

We shall have a general lien over all your property/assets in its possession in the event that you owe any money to us including but not limited to cash, goods, securities or valuables deposited for safe custody as security, cheques presented, bills and any other movable or immovable property. Where you are indebted to us in circumstances giving us a right of set off, all property held under lien shall be deemed to be held as security for the debt

13. Set-Off

We may, upon notice, combine/consolidate your telebirr Account with any of your other accounts held in us, whether current, Credit, savings, deposit, term deposit, joint or any other type and thereafter set off any amount held to your credit against any indebtedness you owe to us.

14. Disclaimer

Your PIN must be kept secret and not accessible to anyone other than you. The consequences of disclosing the PIN, unauthorized use of the telebirr account, cell phone, or SIM card, failing to report loss or theft, or not regularly changing your pin are solely your responsibility.