Terms of Service
These Terms of Service ("Terms") are a binding agreement between you and Qonstruct-Mart Limited (RC pending; Lagos, Nigeria) governing your use of qonstructmart.com, our mobile applications, and any connected service. By signing up you accept these Terms in full.
If anything below conflicts with one of our other policies (Investor Protection, Anti-Fraud, Data Protection, etc.), the more protective rule for you wins.
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1. What Qonstruct-Mart is
Qonstruct-Mart is a Nigerian marketplace + investment platform for the construction industry. We connect homeowners and developers with artisans, vendors, carriers and professionals; we hold escrowed funds on behalf of project parties; we administer investment commitments; and we settle financiers' draw-downs at milestone release.
We are not a bank, securities exchange, fund manager, or licensed financial advisor. We are a registered service provider operating under Nigerian commercial law.
2. Who you must be
You must be at least 18 years old, legally able to enter contracts in Nigeria, and not on any UN, NFIU, or EFCC sanctions list. Companies must be CAC-registered and provide CAC documents on request.
3. The accounts you can hold
A single Qonstruct-Mart account can carry one or more roles:
- Homeowner / developer — post projects, hold escrow, sign off
milestones, manage the Project Vault.
- Contractor / artisan — bid, win work, log site reports, raise
variation requests.
- Vendor — sell materials and rent equipment.
- Carrier — deliver orders, transport hazmat with the right
endorsements.
- Investor — commit to opportunities, vote at milestones, redeem
on completion.
- Financier — provide project financing under our 80% cap, receive
settlement at milestone release.
- Professional — appear in the directory, accept bookings.
You agree to provide accurate information for every role you hold. We verify against CAC, COREN, NSE, NIQS, NIESV, NBA, ARCON, SURCON, CITN, NABCEP and other relevant registers.
4. Identity verification (KYC)
You must complete KYC before withdrawing money, accepting escrowed funds above ₦500,000, or committing to an investment. We use Smile Identity for BVN / NIN match and a face-vector check.
For high-risk site activity (oil, gas, demolition, work-at-height) we require a face check-in at the gate matching the enrolled vector.
We may suspend any account where KYC fails or where any later information contradicts the enrolment.
5. Money — escrow, top-up, withdrawal, fees
5.1 Escrow
Funds for projects sit in segregated escrow held by our regulated payment partner (Paystack / Flutterwave). They are released at the milestone schedule you agreed at project start and only against acceptable evidence.
5.2 Top-up + withdrawal
You can top up via card, bank transfer, or wallet. Withdrawals require MFA. Withdrawals above ₦5M sit in a cooling-off hold of 12–48 hours during which all your devices are notified — if it wasn't you, you have time to stop it.
5.3 Fees
Platform fees are listed at /me/subscription and /legal/fees. We charge:
- A commission on vendor / financier purchases and supplies
routed through the platform.
- A transaction fee on top-ups and withdrawals (passed-through where
the processor sets it).
- A token cost for bid submissions above your free tier.
We do not charge commission on financier pay-outs or settlements. We do not mark up government permit fees — the gov fee is pass-through, our service fee is separately disclosed.
5.4 Tax
Where required, we deduct Withholding Tax at source per the FIRS schedule and remit by the 21st of the following month. You can pause WHT deduction in /me/tax if your tax adviser instructs you to do so, in which case you take on the obligation directly.
6. Investments — the 80% financier cap, votes, and substitutions
6.1 The 80% cap
No financier can fund more than 80% of any single project or milestone. This is a hard system rule, enforced on commitment and re-checked at every draw-down request. We will refuse any allocation that would breach the cap, even if you've signed paperwork to the contrary off-platform.
6.2 Milestone votes
For active investments, milestone release requires an investor vote where the threshold is met. The vote outcome is binding — we release or hold funds accordingly.
6.3 Cooling-off + substitution
Investor commitments enter a 48-hour cooling-off hold during which you can cancel for any reason. After that, the substitution mechanism governs any change.
6.4 We are not your investment adviser
Past performance is not a guarantee. We disclose what we know (Land Title Health Score, permit status, developer track record) but the decision is yours.
7. Variation orders
Once a milestone is locked, any additional or changed work follows our variation policy:
- Minor (≤10% cost, ≤7 days) — auto-approved at the coordinator.
- Material (≤25%, ≤30 days) — investor majority vote.
- Major (above) — full re-pricing + full investor re-vote.
The hazmat rule is absolute: anything hazmat-flagged is always major and requires a safety officer signature.
8. Marketplace + rentals
Listings must be lawful, accurate, and stocked. Rentals require dual-party verification at pickup and return — both parties (or their delegates) sign off on the equipment condition with photos. We hold a deposit until the return verification succeeds.
If you list hazmat, you must upload the MSDS, and buyers must acknowledge it before committing. Carriers transporting hazmat must have valid endorsements.
9. Professionals directory
Verified professionals appear in the public directory. We may suspend a profile (with notice unless safety is at risk) for material misconduct: fraud, repeat dispute losses, repeated unsafe practices, falsified credentials. Suspension is appealable through the dispute path in §11.
10. Account safety
You must use the security tools we provide: passkeys (preferred) or MFA, device-bind on first sign-in, and session monitoring. You're responsible for keeping your sign-in credentials safe. We will never ask for your password, OTP, or recovery codes by email, WhatsApp, or phone.
We will lock an account on detected SIM-swap or device-bind mismatch until you confirm in-person identity.
11. Disputes
Use /disputes/new to open a dispute. The Customer Support team triages within 1 working day. If unresolved within 7 days the matter escalates to our Independent Dispute Panel (3 industry members, none of whom we employ). The Panel's written finding is binding on the platform.
Beyond the Panel, you keep your right to commence proceedings in a Nigerian court of competent jurisdiction (Lagos State or FCT).
12. What you must not do
- Use Qonstruct-Mart to launder money or evade tax.
- Submit forged documents, fake credentials, or AI-generated likenesses
that misrepresent who you are.
- Commit fraud against another user (over-billing, fake projects,
phantom milestones, fake reviews).
- Bypass the 80% financier cap by structuring commitments across
related parties.
- Scrape the platform or otherwise extract data outside our APIs.
- Use the Co-pilot to attempt social engineering or extract another
user's data.
We may suspend any account violating these and recover any improperly released funds.
13. Intellectual property
You keep ownership of everything you upload. You grant us a limited, non-exclusive licence to use it strictly to operate the platform — display your portfolio in the directory, store your evidence in the Vault, render your invoices. We do not train AI models on private user data.
Our platform code, brand, and policies are our intellectual property.
14. Liability
To the maximum extent permitted by Nigerian law, our liability to you in any rolling 12 months is capped at the fees you paid us in that period (escrow held on your behalf is not "fees you paid us").
We are not liable for:
- Loss because a counterparty (financier, contractor, developer)
failed to perform.
- Loss because of force majeure, regulatory action, or sanctions.
- Indirect or consequential losses (lost profit, lost opportunity).
We are liable for our own gross negligence or wilful misconduct.
15. Changes
We will notify you of material changes in-app and by email at least 30 days before they take effect. Continued use after the effective date constitutes acceptance. You can object and close your account during the notice window.
16. Governing law + dispute forum
These Terms are governed by the laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The forum for any unresolved dispute is the courts of Lagos State.
17. Contact
- Legal — legal@qonstruct-mart.com
- Privacy — privacy@qonstruct-mart.com
- Disputes — /disputes/new
- DPO — dpo@qonstruct-mart.com
- Address — to be added when registered office is published.