Terms & Conditions

1. Zyra is being tested

Zyra has not launched. You are using a version that is still being built and tested, and you are one of a small group of testers helping us find what is wrong with it.

That means you should expect the following, and should not use Zyra as your only way to move money:

• Things will break. Transactions may fail, the app may be unavailable, and something that worked yesterday may not work today.
• Features may change or disappear without notice.
• We may contact you about your account, about a transaction, or to ask what happened when something went wrong.
• We may need to pause the service to fix something.

Your money is the exception to all of this. Testing changes what we promise about the product; it does not change what we owe you about your balance. See section 3.

2. Who can use Zyra

• You must be at least 18.
• You give us accurate details when you register, and keep them current.
• One account per person.
• We verify your WhatsApp number, and we may ask you for identification. Identity checks are a legal requirement for financial services in Kenya, not a preference of ours — we may limit or refuse service until you provide what we ask for.
• Your account is yours alone. Do not let anyone else use it.

Keep your password and transaction PIN secret. Tell us straight away if you think someone else has got into your account — the sooner we know, the more we can do.

3. Your money

Your Zyra balance is held in USDC, a digital asset intended to track the US dollar. When you deposit shillings we convert them; when you withdraw we convert back.

We hold that balance for you. We control the wallet, you do not. So:

• The balance is money you own. We hold it on your behalf.
• It is not a bank deposit and it is not covered by the Kenya Deposit Insurance Corporation.
• We do not lend it out, invest it, or use it to run the company.
• It does not earn interest.
• You can withdraw it whenever you want, except in the narrow cases in section 6.

USDC is issued by a third party and we do not guarantee it holds its value. The shilling value of your balance also moves with the exchange rate. If either moves against you, we cannot make that up to you.

[Regulatory status — to be completed on legal advice. Kenya’s Virtual Asset Service Providers Act 2025 and the Regulations under it govern custodial services of this kind. This paragraph will state Zyra’s position once counsel has advised.]

4. Fees and rates

We show you the fee and the exchange rate before you confirm anything. If you do not like them, do not confirm — nothing is charged for a transaction you did not complete.

Our exchange rate includes a margin over the market rate. That margin is how we make money on conversions, and it is inside the rate you are shown rather than added afterwards.

Minimum and maximum amounts apply and are shown in the app. Safaricom, banks and our payment partners may charge their own fees, which are theirs and not ours.

We will give you at least 14 days’ notice before we increase our fees or widen our margin.

5. What you must not do

• Break the law, or help anyone else to.
• Launder money, finance terrorism, or move the proceeds of crime — including holding funds for someone else to disguise where they came from.
• Defraud anyone, us included.
• Use an account that is not yours, or pretend to be someone else.
• Send abusive or threatening messages through our WhatsApp service.
• Attack or probe our systems, or try to get access you were not given.
• Deliberately exploit a fault. Finding one and telling us is the job; quietly draining it is not.

6. If we restrict your account

Sometimes we have to limit what an account can do. This is written narrowly on purpose, because it concerns your money.

We may stop an account sending, paying, buying airtime or depositing where we reasonably believe you have broken section 5, where we are looking into a report about the account, or where the law requires it. We will tell you, and give you the general reason. A restriction like that will not run more than 30 days unless we write to you first explaining why it needs longer.

Stopping you reaching your own balance is more serious, and we treat it separately. We will only do it where we reasonably suspect the account has been taken over or that the funds are not lawfully yours, or where a law, a regulator or a court requires us to hold them.

Where we hold your withdrawals for our own reasons, we will hold them no longer than 72 hours. Where a legal ground applies we hold them only as long as it requires, and tell you as much as we are allowed to — sometimes the law stops us saying anything, and that silence is not a choice we are making.

We will not hold your funds as a penalty, to pressure you, or because a dispute with us is unresolved.

Whatever restriction is in place you can always sign in, see your balance, see your history, and change your password and PIN. We will not stop you securing your own account.

7. If something goes wrong

Tell us. During testing that is genuinely the most useful thing you can do, and it applies to faults and to decisions of ours you think are wrong.

Email zyrapayz@gmail.com, or reply help on WhatsApp. Tell us your registered phone number and what happened.

• We will acknowledge you within 2 business days.
• We will give you a real answer within 5 business days, or tell you why we need longer.
• We will tell you the outcome and, so far as we can, why. Occasionally we cannot give a full reason — where it would tell someone how to get around a fraud check, or where the law stops us.

If our answer does not satisfy you, you can escalate to the Central Bank of Kenya or go to a Kenyan court. Coming to us first does not take that away.

You are responsible for the details you type. If you send money to the wrong number we will try to help, but we cannot promise to get it back — it is with the recipient by then. Confirmed transactions are generally final.

8. Changes, and what happens when we launch

We may change these terms. When we do we publish the new version here with a new version number and date.

For changes that affect your money — fees, our margin, or section 6 — we will give you at least 14 days’ notice by WhatsApp or email. For corrections and clarifications, the new version applies once published.

When testing ends we will tell you, and ask you to accept a full set of terms. These pilot terms are not the ones Zyra will run on.

You can close your account at any time. Withdraw your balance first; if any is left we still owe it to you and will return it on request. We may close an account where you have seriously or repeatedly broken these terms, where the law requires it, or where we stop offering the service — and except where the law prevents us, we will give you notice and a chance to withdraw.

These terms are governed by the laws of Kenya, and the Kenyan courts have jurisdiction over any dispute.

9. Your personal data, and contacting us

We handle your personal data in line with our Privacy Policy and the Data Protection Act 2019. To reach us, email zyrapayz@gmail.com, message us on WhatsApp, or use our contact page.