Written to be read. Every clause here works the way the app works: plainly, and then exactly.
1. Who we are, and what Treu is
Treu ("Treu", "we", "us") operates a money trust service for private contracts. We do four things: we lock money a buyer commits to a deal, we record what both parties agreed and everything that happens after, we release money exactly as the agreement's clauses direct, and we referee when the parties disagree. Nothing else.
Treu is not a bank, not a wallet, not a lender, not an investment product, and never a party to your deal. There are no balances, no withdrawals, and no interest paid to users. Settled money goes straight to the receiving party's bank account; refunds return to the source of payment.
2. Definitions
Contract — the written agreement two (or more) parties sign on Treu. Lock — the buyer's act of committing money to Treu's custody; locking is the buyer's signature. Release — the movement of locked money as the contract directs. Record — the contract, its photos and evidence, its correspondence, and its ledger of events. Referee — Treu's dispute process. Backer / Backed — the parties to a guarantee bond. Claims register — the ledger of lender claims against a bond's pool.
3. Eligibility and your account
You must be 18 or older, resident in Nigeria, and legally able to contract. You sign in with a supported identity (phone number, Google, or Apple). One person, one account. Everything you tell us during verification must be true — a contract signed under a false identity is void at your risk, not your counterparty's.
Your credentials are your responsibility. Keep your sign-in, device, and PIN to yourself. Actions taken through your authenticated account are yours; we are not liable for losses caused by credentials you shared or failed to protect. If you believe your account is compromised, tell us immediately — we can freeze it faster than a thief can spend it.
Businesses may use Treu with a valid CAC registration, supporting documents, and disclosure of beneficial owners. Business accounts carry the same tier rules and the same clause 11.
4. Identity verification and tiers
Contracts only work when both names are real. We verify identity in tiers, and your tier caps the money you can lock as a buyer and the price you can set as a seller: Tier 1 (₦50,000/contract) — name, date of birth, address, NIN or BVN, and a selfie; Tier 2 (₦1,000,000/contract) — BVN and NIN linked, government photo ID, proof of address; Tier 3 (uncapped) — biometric liveness and source of funds. A full biometric face check may clear you to Tier 3 directly.
By verifying, you authorise us to check your details against official registries (including NIMC and BVN systems, through licensed partners). We may decline, limit, or re-verify any account at any time, and we do not have to tell you why.
5. How contracts work
A seller writes terms in plain language; the buyer signs by locking the money. From that moment the clauses execute exactly as written: deadlines act by themselves (a missed posting date returns the buyer's money automatically), inspection windows close by themselves (silence releases), and amendments bind only when both parties sign the rider. You are bound by every clause you sign, including the ones that act against you.
6. Money
Locked money sits with Treu's regulated payment partners in designated accounts — never with the seller and never available to Treu for its own use. Our fee is 1.5% of the contract value, paid by the buyer on top of the price, and is earned when the contract settles or is refunded through the process. Releases reach the seller's registered bank account, typically within minutes; refunds return to the buyer's original payment method. We are not responsible for delays caused by banks, processors, or incorrect account details you supplied.
Releases are final. A release you authorise — by sliding, by PIN, or by letting a window you signed close in silence — cannot be reversed by us. Verify your settlement account details before your first contract; money that lands where you pointed it is money delivered. Our fee may change for future contracts with prior notice; the fee on a live contract never changes after signing.
7. Deal kinds
Physical items — courier with tracking or meet in person; one lock, one release; inspection windows and transit-risk clauses as chosen. Digital goods — the seller seals keys or files with Treu before payment; funding unseals them to the buyer alone; "doesn't work" disputes are decided by the sealed record of who unsealed first. Services — acceptance criteria are contract clauses; the buyer releases by ticking every line; revision rounds and kill fees apply as written. Milestones — the money locks once and releases part by part on approval; a rejected part goes to the referee with only that part at stake. Guarantee bonds — a preview product pending our surety licence: two-sided locks, a claims register capped by arithmetic, release controlled by the backed party, and a default waterfall that consumes the backed party's locked funds first. Bond previews create no binding obligation until the licence is live and the bond terms say so.
8. Disputes: the ladder
If a deal goes wrong the money stays locked while the case climbs: (i) structured negotiation between the parties; (ii) a referee who reads the record and asks questions — unanswered questions let the case move on without you; (iii) a legal read setting out how the matter would likely fare at law; (iv) a human ruling, executed after 24 hours unless escalated; (v) court — a ruling may be challenged before a Nigerian court, and we pay out exactly as a certified judgment directs, verified at a Treu office. By using Treu you accept the ladder, accept that rulings execute automatically, and accept that only the record counts: deals arranged outside the record can't be protected.
Windows matter. A problem must be raised within the contract's own window (inspection, review, or reporting period). Once a window you signed closes in silence and the money releases, there is nothing left to dispute on Treu — that is what the window was for.
Complaints about Treu itself (not about your counterparty) go to our support first — support@treu.ng or the numbers on our contact page. If we fail you, you may escalate to the Consumer Protection Department of the Central Bank of Nigeria or any competent regulator. We will give you the reference numbers you need.
9. The record and your trader profile
Everything on a contract — terms, photos, tracking, correspondence, filings — is part of its permanent record. Your public trader profile shows your conduct in aggregate (contracts kept, disputes lost); it never shows documents, amounts you didn't publish, or your identity papers. Voided contracts and lost disputes appear on your record. That is the point of the record.
10. What you must never use Treu for
Illegal goods or services; stolen, counterfeit, or smuggled goods; drugs and controlled substances; weapons; wildlife contraband; sexual services; anything involving minors; fraud of any kind including advance-fee fraud; money laundering or structuring; terrorism financing; sanctions evasion; ponzi or pyramid schemes; gambling settlements; foreign-exchange dealing as a business; deliberately splitting one deal to dodge tier caps; or any use of the platform to move value while disguising its source, ownership, or destination. We decide what falls on this list, and our decision stands while any investigation runs.
11. Crime, fraud, and the government — read this one
We are not a hiding place. Treu monitors activity for fraud, money laundering, terrorism financing, and other crime — automatically and by human review. If we observe, suspect, or are notified of criminal activity, we will act immediately and without hesitation:
— We will freeze affected locks, contracts, bonds, and accounts, before telling you and without owing you notice.
— We will file reports with the relevant authorities, including suspicious-transaction and suspicious-activity reports, as Nigerian law requires — and where the law gives us discretion, we will use that discretion in favour of reporting.
— We will hand over records promptly and completely — identity documents, biometrics, contracts, ledgers, correspondence, device data, everything we hold — to law enforcement, regulators, courts, and competent agencies (including the EFCC, the NFIU, the Nigeria Police, the CBN, and their lawful counterparts) upon lawful request, court order, or where we reasonably believe disclosure will prevent, detect, or prosecute crime.
— We will do this quickly. Cooperation with the authorities is not a reluctant last resort at Treu; it is policy. We would rather lose a criminal's business than keep it.
Money frozen in connection with an investigation is released only as the investigating authority or a court directs. You will not hold us liable for acting under this clause in good faith.
12. Alerts, and staying reachable
Treu runs on texts: deadlines, locks, releases, and case notices reach you by SMS, WhatsApp, and in-app alerts, and you consent to receiving them — they are part of the service, not marketing, and cannot be switched off while you have live contracts. Keeping your verified phone number current and reachable is your duty; a notice sent to it counts as delivered. Promotional messages, if we ever send any, will be separate and opt-out.
13. Suspension and termination
We may suspend or close any account that breaks these terms, games the dispute process, abuses staff, or presents risk we are unwilling to carry. Live contracts of a suspended account run to completion under the ladder unless clause 11 applies. You may close your account whenever you have no live contracts; the records of your past contracts remain, because they belong to the deals, not to you alone.
14. Liability, indemnity, and things beyond anyone's control
Treu's job is custody, records, execution, and refereeing — done with care and skill. We are not liable for the quality, safety, legality, or truthfulness of what parties sell or promise each other; for losses caused by your own clause choices; for banks' and processors' failures beyond our control; or for indirect or consequential losses. Our total liability on any contract is capped at the fee we earned on it. Nothing here excludes liability that cannot lawfully be excluded.
Indemnity: if your breach of these terms, your fraud, or your misuse of the platform causes claims against Treu, you will compensate us for what it costs. Force majeure: we are not in breach for failures caused by events beyond reasonable control — grid and network outages, processor failures, riots, regulatory action, court orders. We aim for the service to be available always; we do not promise it, and scheduled maintenance will be notified where practicable.
15. Intellectual property and acceptable use
The Treu app, its design, its documents, and its marks are ours. Don't scrape, reverse-engineer, resell, or misrepresent the service. Content you upload to a record stays yours, but you licence us to hold and show it to the deal's parties, the referee, and the authorities in clause 11, forever, because records are permanent.
16. Changes to these terms
We may amend these terms; material changes reach you by text, WhatsApp, or in-app notice before they take effect. Continued use is acceptance. Notices to you count as delivered when sent to your verified phone.
17. Law and forum
These terms are governed by the laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Subject to the dispute ladder in clause 8, the courts of Lagos State have jurisdiction.
18. Contact
legal@treu.ng · support@treu.ng · +234 806 359 8188 · 14 Adeola Odeku Street, Victoria Island, Lagos, Nigeria.
— END · SIGNED IN BIRO —