Welcome to Gazelle by Sterling provided by Sterling Bank Plc (“We”, “Our”, “Us” or “Sterling”).

General Terms

These Terms of Use (the "Agreement") describe the terms and conditions applicable to a User's ("You", “Customer”, "Your") access to and use of the Gazelle by Sterling (“Platform”, “service”) as well as our obligations with respect thereto. Your access to or use of the Services ("Service") available on the Platform is strictly subject to Your compliance with this Agreement (as updated periodically).
Your use of the Services constitutes your agreement to be bound by this Agreement. If you do not agree with the terms of this Agreement, then you will be unable to access the Services. By entering this Agreement, You represent and warrant that you are authorized to do so. Where you meet our credit criteria, you will be required to digitally accept and execute our facility documents relating to the facility offer.

About The Platform

Gazelle by Sterling is a digital platform that leverages digital technology in providing credit to corporate businesses.

Modifications to The Terms and Conditions

We may update these Terms periodically to reflect changes in our services, legal requirements, or business practices. When updates occur, we will post the revised Terms on the Platform and specify the effective date. Your continued use of the Platform after the effective date will constitute acceptance of the updated Terms. To enhance functionality or comply with legal or technical requirements, we may modify, suspend, or discontinue certain features of the Services as stated in these Terms. Where feasible, we will notify you in advance of significant changes.
We will not be liable for any such modifications or discontinuations, provided they do not materially diminish the overall value of the Services to you, subject to applicable laws. You have the right to accept or decline any revised version of these Terms. If you do not agree to the updates, you must discontinue using the Platform and services. Continued use after the effective date of any changes will constitute acceptance of the revised Terms. We recommend reviewing the Terms regularly to stay informed of updates.

Use of The Service Offered on The Platform

While we use our best endeavour to ensure the Platform and Services are available optimally, we make no warranty that any part of the Platform will operate uninterrupted or error free and we accept no liability for loss or damage caused from any interruption or error on any part of the Platform.

We do not guarantee secure, continuous, uninterrupted access to any part of the Gazelle platform or service, including any networks and servers used to provide any of the services stated herein. Accordingly, we are not responsible for the matters, which include actions of hackers and other unauthorized third parties that breach our reasonable security procedure. No method of electronic transmission or storage is 100% secure. Therefore, we cannot guarantee absolute security of the Platform. We will however make reasonable efforts to keep the Platform and service safe, and secure to the extent practicable.

Eligibility to Use The Platform

The Platform is available only to registered users. By accepting these Terms, you acknowledge that your profile information will become part of the Gazelle By Sterling database.

Services On The Platform

The platform provides users with Lending services, including but not limited to; origination, assessment, underwriting, structuring, disbursement, monitoring, recovery, and advisory services.

General Terms

Account Enrollment and Use of Account

To access the Services on the Platform, firstly, you need to enrol to create an individual or corporate profile (“Account”), by providing certain information.
In exchange for your use of the Service and, if applicable, in order for providers to send notices to you. You agree to:

1. Provide true, accurate, current and complete information about yourself as prompted by our Account enrolment form and


2. Each time you log on, maintain and promptly update such Account information to keep it true, accurate, current and complete. If you provide any information that is untrue, inaccurate, not current or incomplete, or we have reasonable grounds to suspect that such Account information is untrue, inaccurate, not current or incomplete, we reserve the right to refuse any future request(s) to use the Services.

You shall at all times remain responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your Account password/access code or passcode and username (if any) and any other security information related to your Account. You agree to accept responsibility for all activities that occur under your username and password. We will not be liable for any loss that you incur as a result of someone else accessing and using your Account, either with or without your knowledge. Where a service is to be accessed by a corporate entity, the Organization will be required to provide its full registration information including its registered address, business objects, names of its key management, shareholding information etc.

Express Consent

The usage of the Platform may also require you to provide consent for keying in/uploading your Personal Information (Personal InformationI)(including but not limited to user IDs and passwords), as may be necessary to process your application through the Platform. Any Personal Information which requires to be keyed in/uploaded is required for enabling hassle-free, faster, and paperless (to the extent possible) processing of applications for products so opted/ availed by you. You, whilst providing your details/documents including but not limited to a copy of the certification of incorporation, Bank Verification Numbers, Tax Identification Numbers, Financial statement, details of existing business relationships, etc. expressly consent to us (including our service provider(s)/ business partner(s) to authenticate/verify such Personal Information submitted by you, through the creation of images of such documents including retaining such images for business purposes.

You hereby authorize and expressly consent us to sharing your Personal Information with our third-party service provider(s) to authenticate you. If you are no longer interested in sharing your Personal Information, please e-mail your request to gazelle@sterling.ng. Please note that the services of third-party providers are sometimes required in the provision of the Services on the platform. When you withdraw your consent to share your information with third parties, you may no longer be able to access the services on the Platform
We may, to the extent permissible under the applicable law, share or disclose your Personal Information where such disclosure is required in providing access to the service and/or necessary/appropriate under the law in force for the time being. For detailed information on how we use your Personal Information, please refer to our privacy policy.

You hereby acknowledge that the use of the Service may involve costs such as valuation fee, company search fee, property title fee, etc (“associated costs”) necessary to process your service request, and the payment of any associated cost by you guarantees neither the approval of the facility nor subsequent disbursement. You also consent to the debit of your account by us for any or all of the associated costs which may be required to process your service request.

Prohibited Use

The User will not use the Platform to:

1. Interfere, disrupt or attempt to gain unauthorised access to other accounts on the Gazelle by Sterling or any other computer network.
2. Use any device, software or routine, including but not limited to viruses, trojan horses, worms, time bombs, and cancelbots, which damage or hinder, or are intended to damage or hinder, the proper working of the web site, or to unlawfully intercept or expropriate any software, data or other information from the web site.
3. Take any action that imposes an unreasonable or disproportionate load on the Platform.
4. Interfere with or disrupt the Services or the servers or networks connected to the Service, including any security or access control mechanism.
5. You will not post, email or otherwise transmit any material that contains software viruses or any other computer code, files or programs designed to interrupt, destroy or limit the functionality of any computer software or hardware or telecommunications equipment.
6. You will not forge headers or otherwise manipulate identifiers in order to disguise the origin of any information transmitted through the Platform.
7. You will not “frame” or “mirror” any part of the Platform, without our prior written authorization.
8. You will not modify, adapt, sublicense, translate, sell, reverse engineer, decipher, decompile or otherwise disassemble or modify any portion of the Platform or any software used on or for the Service or cause or enable others to do so.
9. You will not use the Platform if you are prohibited under applicable law from using the Platform.
10. You will not conduct activities that may be harmful to others or that could damage the reputation of the Platform.
11. You will not post, upload, or distribute marketing or advertising links or content, or any User content or other content that is unlawful, defamatory, libelous, inaccurate, or that a reasonable person could deem to be objectionable, profane, pornographic, harassing, threatening, embarrassing, hateful, or otherwise inappropriate.
12. You will not make any unsolicited offer or advertisement to another user of the Platform or attempt to collect personal information or other information about another user or third party without their consent.

Access

We may update the Gazelle platform to add and improve its functionality. Depending on the update, you may not be able to use the platform until you have downloaded the latest version and accepted any new or additional terms. Also, if you do not (or you do not upgrade your phone’s operating system to the latest version available), certain features of the Platform may not work as intended.

The Gazelle application is provided for convenience. You acknowledge that the platform (and the services/products provided through it) are dependent upon third party services, which may impact its availability to you. We try to ensure that the platform services are always available to you, we however do not promise that it will always be available or always work perfectly. Downtime may arise in cases of maintenance, fraud, or a fault in the systems used to provide the App. We do not guarantee the duration of a system downtime as these events are sometimes outside of our control. However, where reasonably possible, we will provide advance notice of a scheduled downtime or significant service interruptions.

Licensed Use

The content and works (including design, text, graphics and the selection and arrangement) on the Platform are exclusively owned by Sterling and or licensed to Sterling. The duplication, processing, distribution and any kind of exploitation of the Platform's content (to the extent not permitted by copyright laws) require the prior written consent of the Bank. Any use of the content not expressly permitted by these Terms of Use and Cookie Policy is a breach of these Terms of Use and Cookie Policy and may violate copyright, trademark and other laws. You must not use any part of the materials on the Platform for commercial purposes without obtaining a licence to do so from us or our licensors.

Involvement With Third Parties

1. Links to Third Party Sites. The Platform may allow access to other websites. These linked sites are not under our control and we are not responsible for the contents of any linked site. Gazelle by Sterling may provide links only as a convenience, and such inclusion of any link does not imply endorsement by Us of the site or any part of its contents.
2. Items of Third Parties. Some of our Services allow users to make or process transactions for Items ("Transactions") and may allow users to upload or route various information including but not limited to information on Items or information relating to proposed or actual Transactions ("Content"). You acknowledge that, except for Items clearly identified as being those of Sterling, we do not operate, control or endorse any Items listed on the Platform or processed by the Platform.

Disclaimers

• While we strive to provide reliable and secure platform, you acknowledge that the Platform may occasionally be unavailable due to necessary maintenance, upgrades, or circumstances beyond our reasonable control. We will provide advance notice of scheduled interruptions where practicable, but cannot guarantee uninterrupted service availability. The Platform and all related services are provided on an "as available" basis, and we disclaim liability for any losses arising from service unavailability, except where such unavailability results from our gross negligence or willful misconduct.
• The Platform may integrate or provide access to third-party services for your convenience. While we exercise due care in selecting third-party providers, we do not guarantee or assume responsibility for their services, content, or actions. Your use of any third-party services is at your own risk, and we recommend reviewing the terms and privacy policies governing such services. However, we remain responsible for our own negligence in selecting or overseeing these third-party providers.
• To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, we disclaim all implied warranties including merchantability or fitness for particular purpose, while affirming our commitment to providing services with the professional skill and care expected of a licensed financial institution under CBN regulations. Nothing in these terms shall limit or exclude our liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, fraud, or any other liability that cannot be lawfully limited or excluded under Nigerian law.

Data Integrity and Storage

Data Integrity. You are responsible for confirming the accuracy of any data you send to or receive from the Platform, and for maintaining a means external to the Platform, for the reconstruction of your lost data. Gazelle by Sterling has procedures to assist your efforts to confirm that your Data is accurate, current, and complete.
Storage of Data. The Platform will allow you to access Data you send to or receive from the Platform for a limited period of time, as may be announced by us from time to time and which may vary for specific Platform or functions. Notwithstanding the foregoing, we will not delete the transaction Data you retain on the Network that has been stored on the Network for less than eighteen-months, provided that your account is active and in good standing. You are solely responsible for saving all of Your Data. Therefore, You should take proactive measures to store Your Data within Your own computers, in order to preserve the accessibility of such Data beyond the Platform retention period applicable to You.

Documentation

After a consideration and approval of a Service request hereunder, you may be required to electronically download and execute transactional documents and/or credit related documents in respect of the loan application/service for the purpose of evidencing and processing the transaction. You agree and understand that all documents executed and submitted electronically on this platform shall be presumed to be regular, enforceable and binding in the same manner as documents made physically and executed by hand.

Severability

If any of these terms should be determined to be illegal, invalid or otherwise unenforceable by reason of the laws of any state or country in which these terms are intended to be effective, then to the extent and within the jurisdiction which that term is illegal, invalid or unenforceable, it shall be severed and deleted and the remaining of the Terms shall survive, remain in full force and effect and continue to be binding and enforceable.

Non-Assignment

You may not transfer, assign, or delegate these Terms or your rights or obligations herein or your Account, in any way (by operation of law or otherwise). To the extent permitted by applicable law, we may transfer, assign, or delegate these Terms and our rights and obligations hereunder without your consent.

Force Majeure

To the fullest extent permitted under applicable law, we will be excused from performance under these Terms for any period that we are prevented from or delayed in performing any obligations pursuant to these Terms, in whole or in part, as a result of a Force Majeure Event. For purposes of this section, “Force Majeure Event” means an event or series of events caused by or resulting from any of the following: (a) weather conditions or other elements of nature or acts of God; (b) acts of war, acts of terrorism, insurrection, riots, civil disorders or rebellion; (c) quarantines or embargoes, (d) labor strikes; (e); (f) unauthorized access to our information technology systems by third parties; or (g) other causes beyond our reasonable control and contemplation.

Indemnity

You agree to unconditionally release, indemnify, defend, and hold Sterling harmless against any liability, cost, expense, loss, or any damage incurred by us (including but not limited to professional advisors' or cost of legal fees) for any Claim arising from or related to

• the Bank providing the Service or accepting or processing a transaction or instruction from you or your nominated beneficiary or anyone else using the Service with your access credentials
• Breaching this Agreement or a representation or warranty you give,
• A third-party claim against you These Indemnity obligations shall remain in force after you close your Account, or this service terminates.

Anti-Money Laundering

You are now subject to and will at all material times in the future comply with all applicable laws, rules and regulations concerning the detection of financial crimes, prevention of terrorism and anti-money laundering and you acknowledge that any transaction we deal with on your instructions will be covered by statutory and Regulatory requirements relating to money laundering and combating terrorist financing.

Governing Law and Dispute Resolution

These Terms are governed by the laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
We will use our best efforts to resolve any issue that may arise from the use of the Platform. However, we realize that there may be rare cases where we may not be able to resolve an issue to your satisfaction. In the event we cannot resolve a dispute between us, you agree that all matters related to any use or access to the Platform or the services shall be referred to Mediation at the Lagos Multi-Door Courthouse, in accordance with the Lagos State Multidoor Courthouse Rules 2007 or extant law.

Enquiries and Complaints

If you have any questions, complaints or claims with respect to these terms or the Platform, please contact us at gazelle@sterling.ng