Legal

Terms & Conditions

Last updated: 25 July 2026 · Version 1.0

These Terms are between you and Joche Solutions Ltd (RC 9650706), a private company limited by shares incorporated in the Federal Republic of Nigeria ("Joche", "we", "us"), and govern your use of the Joche Gauntlet platform at gauntlet.jocheacademy.com (the "Platform"). Joche Academy is the education brand under which the competition is presented.

1. Acceptance and scope

1.1 These Terms form a binding contract between you and Joche. By creating an account, entering a Competition, or otherwise using the Platform, you accept these Terms in full.

1.2 If you do not accept these Terms, you must not create an account or enter any Competition.

1.3 These Terms incorporate by reference: the Privacy Policy, the Awards & Conduct Policy, any acceptable-use rules, sponsor disclosures, and any Competition-Specific Rules published on the Competition page. Where a Competition-Specific Rule conflicts with these Terms, the Competition-Specific Rule prevails for that Competition only.

1.4 You confirm you have read Clause 9 (Scoring Finality), Clause 20 (Limitation of Liability) and Clause 25 (Dispute Resolution), which limit your rights and remedies.

2. Definitions

"Competition" - a skill-based challenge cycle run on the Platform.
"Entrant" - a registered user who submits an Entry.
"Entry" - any submission made for assessment in a Competition.
"Score" - the result assigned to an Entry by the Assessment System.
"Assessment System" - the combination of automated, algorithmic, artificial-intelligence and/or human evaluation methods used to score Entries.
"Prize" - the reward stated on the relevant Competition page.
"Sponsor" - a third party funding all or part of a Prize.
"Verification" - the identity, eligibility and anti-money-laundering checks described in Clause 13.
"Integrity Breach" - any conduct described in Clause 10.

3. Nature of the competition - skill, not chance

3.1 Every Competition is a competition of skill. Prizes are awarded solely on the basis of demonstrated knowledge, reasoning, accuracy, speed and/or technical ability, as assessed against published criteria.

3.2 No element of chance determines any Prize outcome. No random draw, ballot, lot, or chance-based mechanism is used to select winners.

3.3 Entry is free. No purchase, payment, subscription, airtime, data top-up, deposit, or consideration of any kind is required to enter, to participate, or to increase your chance of winning. Prizes are funded by Sponsors and/or by Joche.

3.4 Where any Competition offers a paid product alongside it, purchase of that product does not improve your standing, Score, ranking or likelihood of winning in any way.

3.5 Nothing on the Platform constitutes a lottery, raffle, sweepstake, pool betting, gaming, wagering or betting activity under the National Lottery Act, the Lagos State Lotteries and Gaming Authority Law, or any other applicable law.

3.6 If any provision of these Terms would cause a Competition to be characterised as a lottery or game of chance in any jurisdiction, that Competition is void in that jurisdiction and no Prize obligation arises there.

4. Eligibility

4.1 To enter, you must:

(a) be at least 18 years old at the time of entry;
(b) be lawfully resident in Nigeria (or a country where these Terms are lawful);
(c) hold a valid Nigerian bank account and a verifiable government identity credential (NIN and/or BVN) in your own legal name;
(d) have full legal capacity to enter a binding contract;
(e) not be prohibited from receiving prizes under any applicable law or sanctions regime.

4.2 The following persons are excluded and any Entry by them is void: directors, officers, employees, contractors, interns and agents of Joche, of any Sponsor, and of any prize-fulfilment or judging partner; and the immediate family (spouse, parent, sibling, child) or household members of any such person.

4.3 We may require documentary proof of eligibility at any time. Failure to provide it within seven (7) days of request voids the Entry and any associated Prize claim.

4.4 One account per natural person. Operating, controlling, or benefiting from more than one account is an Integrity Breach. We may link accounts using device fingerprints, IP data, payment identifiers, identity documents and behavioural signals.

4.5 You may not enter through an agent, proxy, syndicate, "entry service", automated tool, or on behalf of another person.

5. Account and security

5.1 You must provide accurate, current and complete registration information and keep it updated. Providing false information is grounds for immediate termination and forfeiture.

5.2 You are solely responsible for all activity under your account and for safeguarding your credentials. We are not liable for loss arising from your failure to secure your account.

5.3 We may suspend or terminate any account, at any time, with or without notice, where we reasonably suspect an Integrity Breach, a legal or regulatory risk, or a breach of these Terms.

5.4 Accounts are personal and non-transferable. You may not sell, rent, share or assign an account.

6. Entry and participation

6.1 Entry opens and closes at the times stated on the Competition page. The Platform clock is the sole authoritative timekeeper. Entries recorded after the closing time are void regardless of when you began, attempted or intended to submit.

6.2 You are responsible for your own device, connectivity, power supply and environment. We do not accept responsibility for incomplete, late, corrupted, duplicated, lost or failed submissions, including those caused by internet outages, power failure, device failure, browser behaviour, network congestion, or third-party service interruption.

6.3 An Entry is deemed submitted only when it is received and recorded on our servers. Client-side confirmation is not proof of receipt.

6.4 We may impose limits on attempts, retries, session duration and submission size. Circumventing these limits is an Integrity Breach.

6.5 We may, at our discretion, invalidate an entire Competition round where a material technical fault, question error, leak or systemic integrity failure has compromised fairness. In that event our sole obligation is to re-run the round or offer an equivalent replacement Competition.

7. Referrals

7.1 Referral rewards, where offered, are goodwill incentives and are not entries, chances, or consideration. Referrals do not affect Scores, ranking or Prize eligibility.

7.2 Prohibited referral conduct includes: self-referral; creation of accounts you control; incentivised spam; purchased traffic; misrepresenting Joche; use of bots; and any scheme where referral rewards are the dominant purpose of registration.

7.3 We may withhold, reverse, or forfeit any referral reward, without notice, where we reasonably determine it was obtained through prohibited conduct. Our determination is final.

7.4 Referral rewards have no cash value unless expressly stated, expire per the published schedule, and may be modified or discontinued at any time.

8. Submission rules and originality

8.1 Every Entry must be your own original, unaided work, produced within the Competition conditions.

8.2 Unless the Competition page expressly permits it, you must not use: another person's assistance, collaboration or coaching; generative AI tools; search engines; reference materials; shared answer keys; screen-sharing; or any external communication channel during a timed Entry.

8.3 You must not record, screenshot, transcribe, reproduce, publish or distribute Competition questions, prompts, datasets, rubrics or any part of the assessment content. This obligation survives termination and applies indefinitely.

8.4 Your Entry must not infringe any third-party right, contain unlawful, defamatory, obscene or harmful content, or contain malware or executable code intended to interfere with the Platform.

8.5 You warrant that you hold all rights necessary to submit your Entry and to grant the licence in Clause 16.

9. Scoring, adjudication and finality

Read this clause carefully. It significantly limits your ability to challenge results.

9.1 Entries are assessed by the Assessment System, which may include automated and artificial-intelligence-based evaluation applied uniformly to all Entries in a Competition.

9.2 All Scores, rankings, tie-break outcomes and winner determinations are final and binding. By entering, you accept the outcome produced by the Assessment System.

9.3 We do not accept, entertain, or adjudicate substantive disputes about scoring, including disagreements about: the correctness of an answer; the interpretation of a question; the weighting or application of rubric criteria; partial-credit decisions; the quality judgement applied to a subjective response; comparative fairness between Entrants; or any claim that the Assessment System "should have" scored an Entry differently.

9.4 Narrow technical review. The only matters we will review are demonstrable processing errors, namely: (a) an Entry recorded against the wrong account; (b) an Entry not recorded at all despite server-side evidence of receipt; (c) an arithmetic or aggregation error in totalling recorded item-level scores; (d) misapplication of a published eligibility or tie-break rule.

9.5 A request for technical review must be submitted through the in-Platform review form within seventy-two (72) hours of results publication, must specify which sub-paragraph of Clause 9.4 is relied on, and must include supporting particulars. Requests outside this window, or which are in substance a challenge to the merits of scoring, will be closed without further correspondence.

9.6 Human review of automated decisions. Where a Score materially affects your rights, you may request that a human reviewer confirm that the Assessment System was correctly applied to your Entry. That review is limited to correct application of the published methodology. It is not a re-scoring, re-marking, second opinion, or appeal on the merits. The reviewer's confirmation concludes the matter.

9.7 We are not obliged to disclose model weights, prompts, rubric internals, item-level answer keys, other Entrants' Entries or Scores, or any information whose disclosure would compromise the integrity of current or future Competitions.

9.8 There is no second appeal, no escalation tier, and no re-run of an individual Entry.

9.9 Where the number of Prizes is fewer than the number of qualifying Entrants, ranking is determined by: total Score, then time-to-completion, then earliest submission timestamp, then such further published tie-break as we specify.

10. Integrity, anti-cheating and fair play

10.1 The following constitute an Integrity Breach:

(a) multi-accounting, account sharing, or entry via a third party;
(b) impersonation or use of another person's identity documents or bank details;
(c) collusion, answer-sharing, syndicates, or coordinated entry;
(d) use of prohibited aids, bots, scripts, macros, emulators or automation;
(e) exploiting a bug, vulnerability, race condition, API endpoint, or unintended Platform behaviour, whether or not it produced an advantage;
(f) reverse engineering, scraping, or unauthorised access to any part of the Platform;
(g) tampering with timing, device clocks, network responses, or client-side state;
(h) obtaining or distributing assessment content in advance;
(i) providing false eligibility, identity, tax or banking information;
(j) referral fraud under Clause 7.2;
(k) abusive, threatening or harassing conduct toward staff, Sponsors, judges or other Entrants;
(l) any conduct which, in our reasonable opinion, undermines the fairness, integrity or reputation of the Competition.

10.2 We may investigate any Entry or account at any time, including before, during or after Prize award, using automated integrity signals, log analysis, device and network data, identity verification, statistical anomaly detection and manual review.

10.3 Where we reasonably determine an Integrity Breach has occurred, we may (in any combination, without notice and at our sole discretion): void the Entry; disqualify you from the Competition; withhold or cancel a Prize; suspend or permanently ban the account and any linked accounts; forfeit referral rewards; reallocate the Prize to the next eligible Entrant or withhold it entirely; recover any Prize already paid under Clause 15; and report the matter to law enforcement, regulators or affected third parties.

10.4 Our determination on integrity matters is final and is not subject to review under Clause 9.4. We are not obliged to disclose our detection methods, evidence, or the reasoning behind an integrity determination, as disclosure would compromise future detection.

10.5 We reserve the right to require any Entrant, including any prospective winner, to complete a supervised, proctored or live re-verification task before a Prize is released. Refusal to complete re-verification, or material inconsistency between the original Entry and the re-verification performance, is grounds for disqualification.

11. Prizes

11.1 The Prize for each Competition is exactly as stated on that Competition page. No other benefit, expectation or representation forms part of the Prize.

11.2 Prizes are non-transferable, non-exchangeable, non-negotiable, and there is no cash alternative unless we expressly state otherwise.

11.3 We may substitute any Prize with one of equal or greater value where the original becomes unavailable, impracticable, or unlawful to award.

11.4 Prizes may be funded by a Sponsor. Sponsors have no role in scoring, adjudication, or winner selection. Sponsor branding does not imply Sponsor endorsement of any Entrant.

11.5 Prize pool caps. In no circumstances will our total Prize liability for any Competition exceed the published Prize pool for that Competition, regardless of the number of Entrants, tied results, or errors in publication.

11.6 Pricing and publication errors. Where a Prize value, quantity or eligibility condition is published in error, we may correct the error and award on the corrected basis. An obvious error does not create an enforceable entitlement.

11.7 Where a Prize is a course, place, licence, service or third-party benefit, it is subject to the third party's own terms, and we are not responsible for the third party's performance.

12. Taxes and deductions

12.1 You are solely responsible for all taxes, levies, and statutory deductions arising from receipt of a Prize, including any applicable income tax, withholding tax or capital gains treatment under Nigerian law.

12.2 Where we are required by law to withhold or deduct any amount from a Prize, we will do so and remit it to the relevant authority. The net amount received by you discharges our obligation in full.

12.3 We may require your Tax Identification Number (TIN) before releasing any Prize.

12.4 We give no tax advice. You should obtain independent advice on your own position.

13. Winner verification, KYC and AML

13.1 No Prize is released until Verification is completed to our satisfaction.

13.2 Verification may require: government-issued photo identification; NIN and/or BVN; proof of address; a liveness or selfie check; bank account confirmation in your own name; a signed declaration of eligibility and originality; and a signed Prize receipt and release.

13.3 Verification must be completed within fourteen (14) days of our request. Failure to complete Verification within that period results in automatic forfeiture of the Prize without compensation, and we may reallocate or withhold it.

13.4 We may refuse to release a Prize where: identity cannot be satisfactorily verified; the bank account is not in the Entrant's own legal name; the Entrant appears on any applicable sanctions or PEP screening list; or release would expose us to money-laundering, terrorism-financing, fraud or regulatory risk.

13.5 Verification data is processed in accordance with the Privacy Policy and the Nigeria Data Protection Act 2023.

14. Payout

14.1 Cash Prizes are paid by electronic transfer to the verified Nigerian bank account of the winner, via our payment processor, normally within seven (7) working days of successful Verification.

14.2 Payout timelines are estimates, not guarantees. We are not liable for delays caused by banks, payment processors, network operators, regulatory holds, public holidays, or incomplete or inaccurate details supplied by you.

14.3 You bear the risk of incorrect payment details. Where funds are sent to an account you specified, the Prize obligation is discharged, whether or not you controlled that account.

14.4 Where a payout fails, we will make two (2) further reasonable attempts after you supply corrected details. If payout remains unsuccessful ninety (90) days after first attempt, the Prize is forfeited.

14.5 Unclaimed, forfeited or undeliverable Prizes revert to Joche or the Sponsor and may be reallocated or withdrawn.

14.6 We do not pay interest on any Prize amount for any period.

15. Clawback and recovery

15.1 Where a Prize is awarded or paid and we subsequently determine that the recipient was ineligible, committed an Integrity Breach, supplied false information, or received the Prize as a result of error, the recipient must repay the full value on written demand.

15.2 We may set off any amount recoverable under Clause 15.1 against any other Prize, reward, balance or benefit owed to that person, and may pursue recovery through debt collection or legal proceedings, with costs recoverable.

15.3 This clause survives termination of your account and of these Terms.

16. Intellectual property

16.1 All Platform content, including software, design, questions, prompts, datasets, rubrics, marks, logos and the "Joche", "Joche Academy" and "Joche Gauntlet" brands, is owned by or licensed to us and is protected by law. No rights are granted to you except as expressly stated.

16.2 You retain ownership of your Entry. You grant Joche a worldwide, royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive, sublicensable licence to host, store, reproduce, adapt, analyse, publish, display and use your Entry for the purposes of: operating and adjudicating the Competition; integrity investigation; internal analytics and quality improvement; training and evaluating assessment models; and promotion of the Platform in anonymised or attributed form.

16.3 To the extent permitted by law, you waive any moral rights in your Entry in respect of the uses in Clause 16.2.

16.4 You grant no licence that would prevent you from using your own Entry elsewhere.

17. Publicity

17.1 As a condition of accepting a Prize, you consent to the use of your name, username, city/state, likeness, photograph, Entry, Score, and a brief statement, by Joche and any Sponsor, in any medium worldwide, for announcement, marketing and promotional purposes, without further consent, notice, or payment.

17.2 We will publish winners' names or usernames as a matter of Competition transparency and regulatory good practice.

17.3 You may request in writing that we cease future promotional use of your likeness; this does not require withdrawal of published material or affect transparency publication under 17.2.

17.4 You must not make any public statement purporting to represent Joche or any Sponsor, or use our marks, without prior written consent.

18. Data protection

18.1 We process personal data in accordance with the Nigeria Data Protection Act 2023 and our Privacy Policy.

18.2 Automated processing. You acknowledge that Entries are assessed by automated means, and you consent to that processing as necessary for performance of this contract. Clause 9.6 sets out the human-review mechanism available to you.

18.3 Integrity processing. You consent to processing of device, network, behavioural, biometric-verification and identity data for fraud prevention and Competition integrity, on the basis of our legitimate interest in preventing fraud and our legal obligations.

18.4 Cross-border transfer. Platform infrastructure, hosting, database, analytics and AI-processing providers may be located outside Nigeria. By using the Platform you acknowledge such transfers, which are made under the safeguards described in the Privacy Policy.

18.5 We retain Entry, Score, identity, payout and integrity records for the period required by applicable tax, AML and limitation-period law, and for the defence of legal claims.

18.6 Exercise of data subject rights does not create a route to re-open a Score determination under Clause 9.

19. Platform availability, disclaimers and force majeure

19.1 The Platform is provided "as is" and "as available". We do not warrant that it will be uninterrupted, error-free, secure, or that defects will be corrected.

19.2 To the fullest extent permitted by law, all implied warranties, conditions and terms are excluded.

19.3 We may modify, suspend, restrict or discontinue any part of the Platform or any Competition at any time.

19.4 Force majeure. We are not liable for failure or delay caused by events beyond our reasonable control, including power failure, telecommunications or internet failure, cyber-attack, hosting or cloud-provider outage, payment-processor failure, bank or regulatory action, epidemic, civil unrest, industrial action, natural disaster, war, or change of law.

19.5 Cancellation. Where a Competition cannot lawfully or practicably continue, including withdrawal of Sponsor funding, regulatory intervention, or a compromise of integrity, we may cancel, suspend, shorten, extend or amend it. Where a Competition is cancelled before winners are determined, no Prize entitlement arises and our sole obligation is to notify Entrants. As entry is free, no refund arises.

20. Limitation of liability

This clause limits the money you can recover from us. Please read it.

20.1 Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, or for any liability that cannot lawfully be excluded under Nigerian law.

20.2 Subject to 20.1, we are not liable for: loss of profit, revenue, business, opportunity, goodwill or reputation; loss of expected winnings, expected Prize, or "chance to win"; loss of data; wasted time, effort, airtime or data cost; or any indirect or consequential loss, in each case however arising.

20.3 Subject to 20.1, our total aggregate liability to you in connection with the Platform, any Competition, and these Terms, whether in contract, tort (including negligence), statute or otherwise, shall not exceed the greater of (a) the value of the single Prize you would have been entitled to had you placed first in the Competition in question, or (b) ₦50,000.

20.4 We are not liable for the acts, omissions, products, services or insolvency of any Sponsor, payment processor, hosting provider, bank, or other third party.

20.5 You must bring any claim within six (6) months of the event giving rise to it, failing which the claim is waived to the extent permitted by law.

21. Indemnity

21.1 You indemnify and hold harmless Joche, its officers, employees, contractors and Sponsors against all claims, losses, damages, liabilities, fines and reasonable legal costs arising from: your breach of these Terms; your Integrity Breach; any third-party claim relating to your Entry; your provision of false information; and your breach of any applicable law.

22. Third-party services

22.1 The Platform integrates third-party services (including hosting, authentication, payment processing, communications and AI providers). Your use of those services may be subject to their own terms.

22.2 We are not responsible for third-party service failures, outages, security incidents originating with them, or changes to their terms.

23. Amendments

23.1 We may amend these Terms at any time. The amended version takes effect on publication with an updated "Last updated" date.

23.2 Material changes affecting an open Competition will not be applied retrospectively to Entries already submitted, except where required by law or necessary to preserve Competition integrity.

23.3 Continued use of the Platform after publication constitutes acceptance. If you do not accept an amendment, your sole remedy is to stop using the Platform and close your account.

24. Suspension and termination

24.1 You may close your account at any time. Closure does not entitle you to any Prize, reward or refund, and does not extinguish liabilities already accrued.

24.2 We may suspend or terminate your account immediately, without notice and without liability, for breach of these Terms, suspected Integrity Breach, legal or regulatory requirement, or risk to the Platform or other users.

24.3 Clauses 8.3, 9, 10.4, 15, 16, 17, 18.5, 20, 21, 25 and 26 survive termination.

25. Complaints and dispute resolution

25.1 Scoring outcomes are not complaints matters. Clause 9 is the exclusive and complete mechanism for anything relating to Scores, rankings and winner determination.

25.2 For all other matters, you must first submit a written complaint to gauntlet@jocheacademy.com with full particulars. We aim to respond within ten (10) business days.

25.3 If unresolved, the parties will attempt in good faith to resolve the dispute by mediation at the Lagos Multi-Door Courthouse before commencing proceedings.

25.4 Governing law: the laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

25.5 Jurisdiction: the courts of Lagos State, Nigeria have exclusive jurisdiction, subject to 25.3.

25.6 No class or representative actions. You may only bring claims in your individual capacity, to the extent permitted by law.

26. General

26.1 Severability. If any provision is held invalid or unenforceable, it is severed or read down to the minimum extent necessary, and the remainder continues in force.

26.2 No waiver. Failure or delay in enforcing any right is not a waiver of it.

26.3 Assignment. You may not assign these Terms. We may assign or novate them to any successor, affiliate or acquirer of the business.

26.4 Entire agreement. These Terms, with the documents referred to in Clause 1.3, constitute the entire agreement and supersede all prior representations. You confirm you have not relied on any statement not set out in these Terms.

26.5 No partnership. Nothing creates a partnership, agency, joint venture or employment relationship.

26.6 Third party rights. Sponsors and our affiliates may enforce clauses expressed to benefit them. No other third party has enforcement rights.

26.7 Notices. We may give notice by email to your registered address, by in-Platform notification, or by publication on the Platform. Notice is deemed received 24 hours after sending or publication.

26.8 Language. These Terms are drafted in English, which governs interpretation.

27. Contact

Joche Solutions Ltd (RC 9650706), Nigeria.
General and complaints: gauntlet@jocheacademy.com
Data protection: gauntlet@jocheacademy.com