Terms of Service

These Terms of Service (the “Terms”) are a binding agreement between you and Ranga (“Ranga”, “we”, “us”), Kigali, Rwanda, for your use of the Ranga website, applications and services (the “Platform”).

You accept these Terms and our Privacy Policy when you tick the agreement box at sign-up, when you continue with Google or email on a screen that says “By continuing, you agree to Ranga’s Terms of Service and Privacy Policy”, or when you otherwise use the Platform. If you do not agree, do not use the Platform.

We record the date, time and version of the Terms you accepted. You agree that this electronic acceptance is your signature and is as binding as a signed paper agreement, as recognised by Rwandan law on electronic messages, electronic signatures and electronic transactions.

• Owner: a user who reports an item as lost or claims a found item as theirs.
• Finder: a user who reports an item as found or says they found a reported item.
• Match: a link the Platform creates between a lost report and a found item, automatically or at a user’s request.
• Verification: the private check an Owner must pass to prove ownership, such as confirming a document number or answering the Finder’s question.
• Recovery Fee: the single amount an Owner pays after passing Verification to unlock contact with the Finder.
• Reward: the part of the Recovery Fee paid to the Finder after the Owner confirms receipt.

• You must be at least 18 years old, or use the Platform with the consent and supervision of a parent or legal guardian who accepts these Terms for you.
• You must give accurate, current information, including your name and Mobile Money number, and keep it up to date.
• You may hold one personal account. You are responsible for everything done through it and for keeping your password secret.
• Tell us immediately at support.ranga@gmail.com if you believe your account has been used without your permission.

Ranga is a technology platform that helps people who lost items and people who found them to find each other, verify ownership and complete a handover. Ranga:

• does not own, hold, inspect or transport any item, and is not a party to the handover between users;
• does not guarantee that any item will be found, that a Match is correct, or that any user is honest;
• is not the police, a court, or a government lost-property office, and does not replace them;
• uses automated tools, including AI-powered matching and photo redaction, which can make mistakes. Matches are suggestions, not findings of ownership.

Identity documents such as national ID cards and passports remain the property of the issuing authority. Using Ranga does not change that.

When you submit a report, you confirm that it is true, complete and made in good faith. In particular:

• Owners may only report items that belong to them or that they are legally entitled to recover.
• Finders must keep a found item safe and unaltered, must not use, sell, copy, give away or destroy it, and must hand it over only through the process on the Platform or to the police.
• Finders may at any time hand an item to the police instead. If you do, mark it as “handed to police” on the Platform.
• Keeping, selling or using property you know belongs to someone else may be a criminal offence under Rwandan law. Ranga may report it.
• You must not upload photos showing other people’s faces, document numbers or private details beyond what is needed. Ranga blurs sensitive areas of document photos automatically, but you remain responsible for what you upload.

Before an Owner can contact a Finder, the Owner must pass Verification. For documents this is usually the full document number, which Ranga stores only as a one-way fingerprint (hash). For other items it is a question set privately by the Finder. Ranga may add other checks.

• Verification attempts are limited. Ranga may lock a Match, ask for more evidence, or cancel a Match if it suspects fraud.
• A Finder who sets a question confirms that the answer is true and that it is not visible in the public listing or photos.
• Passing Verification is evidence of ownership for the purposes of the Platform only. It is not a legal finding of ownership.
• Ranga is not liable where a person passes Verification using information they obtained dishonestly, but will cooperate fully with any investigation.

Ranga is free to use. Creating an account, reporting lost or found items, searching, receiving match alerts, Verification and messaging cost nothing. Finders never pay.

The only charge is the Recovery Fee, paid by an Owner after passing Verification, to unlock contact with the Finder. The Recovery Fee is a flat RWF 5,000 for every item and every Owner, as shown on our Pricing page. Ranga keeps 20% as its service fee and the remaining 80% is the Finder’s Reward, unless a different amount or split is clearly shown before you pay.

• Payments are processed by MTN Mobile Money. By approving the payment prompt on your phone you authorise the charge.
• Ranga holds the Recovery Fee until the Owner confirms receipt of the item. Holding a payment does not make Ranga a bank, a deposit-taker or a trustee, and no interest is paid.
• For items held by an organization, the same fee goes to Ranga as a service fee instead of a Reward, as shown before payment.
• We may change prices for the future. Changes never affect a payment already made.
• Each payment is recorded with an invoice number, amount, time and MTN reference. These records are available in your account.

• A Finder earns the Reward only after the Owner confirms on the Platform that they received the item.
• Rewards are sent to the Mobile Money number on the Finder’s profile. The Finder is responsible for that number being correct and registered in their name.
• Ranga may delay a payout while a dispute, fraud check or legal request is open, and may cancel it if the Finder breached these Terms.
• A Reward is a voluntary thank-you from the Owner. It is not a salary, commission or employment payment, and the Finder is responsible for any tax on it.

The Recovery Fee is paid only after an Owner has passed Verification and chosen to unlock contact with the Finder. Because the Owner decides to pay after checking the match, all Recovery Fees are final and non-refundable, including where the Owner later changes their mind, cannot attend the handover, or no longer needs the item.

Where a dispute shows that a Finder acted dishonestly or failed to hand the item over, Ranga may withhold the Finder’s Reward and take the action described in these Terms. Withholding a Reward does not create any right to a refund of the Recovery Fee. Nothing in this section removes any right you have under Rwandan law that cannot be excluded by agreement.

You must not, and must not help anyone else to:

• make a false report, claim an item that is not yours, or impersonate another person;
• demand money, goods or favours outside the Platform in exchange for returning an item, or refuse to return an item to obtain payment (this may amount to extortion);
• arrange payment outside the Platform for a Match made on it, to avoid the Recovery Fee or Ranga’s protections;
• sell, pawn or otherwise dispose of a found item;
• harass, threaten, defraud or endanger another user;
• upload unlawful, offensive or misleading content, or another person’s personal data without a lawful reason;
• scrape, copy or harvest data from the Platform, or try to bypass Verification, security or rate limits;
• interfere with the Platform, reverse engineer it, or use it for any unlawful purpose.

Breaching this section may lead to suspension, loss of Rewards, reporting to the police, and legal action to recover our losses.

• Ranga is not present at handovers. Users arrange and attend them at their own risk.
• Meet in a busy public place or at a police station, in daylight, and bring someone if you can. Never share your PIN or passwords.
• Owners should check the item before confirming receipt. Confirming receipt releases the Reward and cannot be undone.
• Report any threat or crime to the Rwanda National Police first, then to Ranga.

If something goes wrong with a Match, use “Report a problem” on the Match page or email support.ranga@gmail.com within 14 days. Ranga may review the reports, messages, Verification records, payment records and any evidence you provide, and may ask both sides for more information.

Ranga decides, acting reasonably and in good faith, whether the Finder’s Reward is released or withheld. That decision is final as far as money held by Ranga is concerned, but it does not stop either user from pursuing their rights against the other through the courts or the police.

To protect users and resolve disputes, Ranga keeps electronic records, including:

• account details and the date, time and version of the Terms you accepted;
• reports, photos, edits and status changes, with timestamps;
• Matches, Verification attempts and their results (never the answers given);
• messages between users after contact is unlocked;
• payments, MTN references and payouts;
• administrative actions taken by Ranga staff (audit log).

You agree that these records, kept in the ordinary course of operating the Platform, are accurate evidence of what happened on the Platform and may be produced in any dispute, complaint or legal proceeding, including as electronic evidence before Rwandan courts and authorities. You will not dispute their admissibility only because they are electronic.

Ranga may share information with the Rwanda National Police, the Rwanda Investigation Bureau, courts and other competent authorities when required by law, in response to a lawful request, or where we believe in good faith that it is needed to prevent fraud, theft, harm to a person, or to protect Ranga’s rights. We may also hand over records of suspected crimes on our own initiative.

You keep ownership of what you upload. You give Ranga a non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to host, process (including OCR, blurring and matching), display and share it as needed to run the Platform and as described in the Privacy Policy, for as long as it is on the Platform and as long as we must keep records afterwards. You confirm you have the right to upload it.

The Platform, its software, design, the name “Ranga”, the logo and the tagline “Connecting you to yours” belong to Ranga or its licensors. You may use the Platform for its intended purpose only. You may not copy, modify, sell or create derivative works from it without our written permission.

You may close your account at any time from Settings. Ranga may suspend or close an account, remove content, cancel Matches or withhold held funds pending review if we reasonably believe you breached these Terms, broke the law, or put others at risk.

Sections that by their nature should survive closure, including fees owed, records and evidence, limitation of liability, indemnity and governing law, continue to apply.

The Platform is provided “as is” and “as available”. To the extent the law allows, Ranga makes no promise that the Platform will be uninterrupted or error-free, that items will be found, that Matches or automated results are correct, or about the condition, value or legality of any item. Nothing in these Terms limits rights you have as a consumer that cannot be limited by law.

To the maximum extent permitted by Rwandan law:

• Ranga is not liable for the acts or omissions of users, including loss, damage, theft or misuse of an item, or anything that happens at a handover;
• Ranga is not liable for indirect or consequential loss, loss of profit, or loss of data;
• Ranga’s total liability to you for any claim is limited to the greater of the fees you paid Ranga in the 12 months before the claim and RWF 50,000.

Nothing here limits liability for fraud, gross negligence, death or personal injury caused by negligence, or any liability that cannot be limited by law.

You agree to compensate Ranga for losses, costs (including reasonable legal fees) and claims by third parties arising from your breach of these Terms, your false report or claim, your content, or your unlawful conduct.

Ranga is not responsible for delays or failures caused by events beyond its reasonable control, including outages of MTN Mobile Money, telecommunications or hosting providers, power cuts, natural disasters, public emergencies or government action.

We may update these Terms. For material changes we will give notice on the Platform or by email at least 14 days before they take effect, except where a change is required by law or to address fraud. If you keep using the Platform after a change takes effect, you accept the new Terms. Each version is dated and numbered at the top of this page.

These Terms are governed by the laws of the Republic of Rwanda.

If you have a dispute with Ranga, contact us first at support.ranga@gmail.com. We will try to resolve it within 30 days. If we cannot, either party may refer it to mediation in Kigali. If it is still unresolved, the competent courts of the Republic of Rwanda sitting in Kigali have exclusive jurisdiction, without affecting any mandatory right you have to go to another court.

• These Terms, the Privacy Policy and any terms shown at payment are the entire agreement between you and Ranga.
• If any part is found invalid, the rest stays in force.
• If we don’t enforce a right straight away, we have not given it up.
• You may not transfer your rights under these Terms. Ranga may transfer them to a successor business.
• We may send notices to the email on your account or in the app. They are treated as received when sent.
• If these Terms are translated, the English version prevails.