Privacy Policy

This policy covers everyone who uses the Teqia platform: students who apply to learn, mentors who teach, and donors who fund the programmes. Where something applies to only one of those groups, it says so.

Teqia Grassroot Foundation decides how and why your personal data is used, which makes it the data controller under the Nigeria Data Protection Act 2023.

Only what the platform needs to run:

• Account details: your name, email address, phone number and the role you signed up as.
• Application answers (students): where you live, your date of birth, what you want to learn, your laptop and internet access, the hours you can study, and what you wrote about your goal and background.
• Learning records (students and mentors): work you submit, the scores and written feedback a mentor gives, and your progress through the programme stages.
• Donation records (donors): the amount, the programme, the date and the reference for each donation, plus the card brand, last four digits and expiry that Paystack returns for a saved card.
• Technical records: sign-in times, the device and browser used, and the approximate location of a sign-in, so you can spot an account someone else has got into.

Teqia never sees or stores your full card number, CVV or bank password. Card payments happen on Paystack’s own checkout page, and Teqia receives only the result.

• To create your account and let you sign in.
• To review applications and place students in a programme and cohort.
• To match students with mentors, set work, mark it and record progress.
• To take donations, issue receipts and report how the money was used.
• To send the notifications you have chosen, and the few Teqia must send about your account.
• To keep the platform secure and investigate abuse.
• To meet Teqia’s legal and financial reporting obligations as a registered Nigerian foundation.

• Your mentor sees your application answers, your submitted work, your scores and your progress. They need these to teach you.
• Other learners in your cohort see your first name and last initial, and, if you leave those settings on, the stage you are working on. They never see your scores unless you switch that on yourself.
• Donors see anonymised totals and progress. A donor sees your name or story only if you have given consent on your privacy settings page, and Teqia shows you the exact words and photo first.
• Teqia staff see what they need to run the programmes and support you.

Teqia does not sell your personal data, and does not share it for advertising.

Some services process data on Teqia’s behalf:

• Paystack: takes card and bank payments, and holds the card details Teqia never sees.
• Hosting and email providers: run the platform and deliver the emails it sends. To confirm: the final list of providers and where each one stores data.

Your account and learning record are kept while you are with Teqia and afterwards, so your certificate and what you achieved can still be verified. Donation records are kept as long as financial reporting rules require.

To confirm: the exact retention period for each kind of record, and what is deleted immediately when someone asks to close their account.

Under the Nigeria Data Protection Act 2023 you can ask Teqia to:

• give you a copy of the personal data it holds about you;
• correct anything that is wrong;
• delete your data, where Teqia is not required to keep it;
• stop or limit a particular use of it;
• withdraw a consent you gave, such as letting Teqia share your story.

Email [email protected] and Teqia will respond. If you are not satisfied, you can complain to the Nigeria Data Protection Commission.

Sign-ins are protected by your password, and you can turn on two-factor authentication. You can see the devices signed in to your account and sign them out.

Teqia will never ask for your password or a two-factor code by phone, email or WhatsApp. If someone does, it is not Teqia.

To confirm: the platform’s encryption, backup and breach-notification arrangements, once the API is live.

Some Teqia programmes are open to applicants under 18. Where that is the case, Teqia asks for a parent or guardian’s consent before a place is confirmed. To confirm: the minimum age for each programme and how guardian consent is recorded.

If Teqia changes how it uses your data, this page is updated and the date at the top changes. For anything that affects you directly, Teqia will tell you by email as well.