Terms of service

1. Who we are, and what we are not

WakaVoy is a ticketing platform. Cameroonian intercity transport companies publish their departures and sell their seats on it; passengers book and pay for a seat, either from the mobile app or at a station counter.

This distinction is not a turn of phrase: it decides who you need to talk to when something goes wrong. A coach that leaves late, a missing bag, a seat in poor condition, bad behaviour on board — these are the operator's. A ticket not issued after your money was taken, a refund not paid, a platform outage — these are ours. Sections 8 and 9 set out the split in full.

The platform is operated by Zihne Cameroun Sarl, a company incorporated in Cameroon — RCCM no. RC/YAO/2024/B/581, taxpayer no. M032416606321N, registered office BP 13240, Simbock, Yaoundé — and a subsidiary of Zihne Ltd (incorporated in England and Wales, Companies House no. 15054478). Zihne Cameroun Sarl sells WakaVoy and is the party that contracts with you, and the party that collects: card payment is not offered, so every payment is collected in Cameroon (point 1).

The intermediary characterisation this whole document relies on, and the position that WakaVoy needs no transport licence to act that way, are TO VERIFY 3.

2. Definitions

Throughout this document:

Term	What it means
The platform	The wakavoy.com site, the WakaVoy mobile app, the operator portal and the technical services that run them.
WakaVoy, "we"	The company that operates the platform.
The operator, the carrier	The intercity transport company registered on the platform, which publishes departures, sets fares and runs the journey.
The passenger, "you"	The person who books a seat, or the person named on the ticket where that is someone else.
The booker	On a group booking, the person who books and pays for all the passengers, and whose number receives any refund.
The ticket	The travel document issued by the platform on the operator's behalf, identified by a booking reference (PNR) and a signed QR code.
The departure	A specific journey, on a given date and time, on a given route, run by a given operator.
The commission	The share WakaVoy retains from the operator's takings as payment for the service.
Collection fees	The fees charged by the Mobile Money operator or the card provider to process the payment, paid by the passenger on top of the fare.
Settlement	The transfer of takings to the operator, to their Mobile Money account.

3. Accepting these terms

You accept these terms by booking a seat, by creating an operator account, or more generally by using the platform. If you do not accept them, do not use the platform: you can always buy your ticket directly at the operator's counter, outside WakaVoy.

These terms do not replace the operator's own conditions of carriage (boarding rules, luggage rules, conduct on board). Both apply together. Where the two conflict on how the journey is run, the operator's prevail — they are the ones carrying you.

The legal weight of acceptance given by simply confirming in the app, and of the QR code as proof of the ticket, are TO VERIFY 9.

4. Accounts and access

If you are a passenger

There is no account to create. You book with your phone number, which you confirm with a one-time code sent by SMS. That code opens a thirty-minute session, long enough to book or to find your tickets again.

What follows from that, in practice:

• the number you enter must be yours and must be correct: it is where the ticket, the travel information and any refund will go;
• never pass on the code you receive by SMS. Anyone holding it can see your bookings and request a refund in your place;
• if you change number or lose the line, write to us before departure — moving a booking to another number requires a manual check;
• you may book for someone else, and for up to six passengers in a single booking. You are then responsible for the accuracy of each person's details, and you undertake that those passengers will comply with these terms.

The minimum age to book on your own, and the conditions for a minor to travel, are TO VERIFY 5. The platform asks for no date of birth today: the "adult", "child" and "infant" categories exist only to apply the operator's fare, and it is the operator who checks age at boarding if it considers that necessary.

If you are a transport company

Your account is created on registration, but it cannot sell until three checks have passed: the director's email address, the Mobile Money account for settlement, and the company file. The documents expected — RCCM, taxpayer card, transport licence, the director's national ID card — are set out on our support page.

You undertake to:

• declare only accurate information and genuine, valid documents, and to tell us of any change (director, licence, settlement number);
• use named accounts only for your staff, counter agents and drivers, and to remove a person's access as soon as they leave;
• protect your credentials. Actions taken from an account in your organisation are attributed to you;
• turn on two-factor authentication for the accounts that manage schedules, refunds and settlements. It is available in the portal;
• declare a settlement Mobile Money number in the company's name or its director's. A number in a third party's name cannot be accepted.

Tell us immediately at security@wakavoy.com if you suspect an access has been compromised.

5. Booking and your ticket

How a booking is formed

When you choose a seat, it is held for you for ten minutes while you pay. If payment is not confirmed within that time, the seat goes back on sale and the booking expires. Nothing is charged to you.

A booking is only firm once payment is confirmed by the Mobile Money operator or the card provider, and the ticket has been issued. Until payment is confirmed, no seat is definitively yours, even if the app shows a booking in progress.

On coaches with numbered seats, the seat you pick is assigned to you. On open-seating vehicles, the ticket entitles you to a place on board without a seat number. The app tells you which of the two applies before you pay.

What the ticket entitles you to

A confirmed ticket entitles you to one seat on the specific departure shown on it — same route, same date, same time, same operator. It does not entitle you to a different departure, to a different vehicle, or to an automatic refund if something goes wrong.

The ticket is identified by a booking reference (PNR) and a signed QR code, sent to your phone and by SMS. At boarding you must:

• present the QR code, which is scanned and verified;
• present identification if the operator requires it — it will have told you so when you booked;
• be at the boarding point at the time the operator has set.

A cancelled, refunded or unconfirmed ticket is rejected at the scan. The QR code stops being verifiable two days after the departure time.

Counter bookings

A booking made at a station counter follows the same rules, except that the operator's agent enters your details. Check them before you pay: it is the name on the ticket that is checked at boarding. A ticket paid in cash at a counter has its own refund regime, described in section 7.

If you do not turn up

A seat booked and paid for that you do not use is not refunded, unless you requested the refund before the operator's deadline closed (see section 7). The platform does not automatically cancel an unscanned ticket and does not convert it into credit.

Whether this rule is enforceable under Cameroonian consumer law is TO VERIFY 13.

6. Prices, fees and payment

All amounts are in CFA francs (XAF) and include tax where tax applies.

Who sets what

Amount	Set by	Borne by
Ticket fare	The operator	The passenger
Mobile Money or card collection fee	The payment provider	The passenger, on top of the fare
WakaVoy commission — 3% of the fare	WakaVoy	The operator, deducted at settlement
Fees to transfer settlement to the operator	The Mobile Money operator	The operator, deducted from the payout

The commission is borne by the operator and does not change what you pay. The exact total that will be debited — fare plus collection fee — is shown to you before you confirm payment. On a group booking, the collection fee is charged once on the total, not per passenger.

Payment methods

• MTN Mobile Money, from the app or at a counter;
• cash at the counter, where the operator accepts it;
• Orange Money: planned, but not yet available. Do not advertise it as live until the integration is in service.

Each operator chooses which of these it accepts. You see the real list when you come to pay.

WakaVoy's regulatory status as a collecting intermediary, and any authorisation required to hold and then settle passengers' funds, are TO VERIFY 2.

Payment confirmation

For a Mobile Money payment, you approve it on your own phone, with your own operator. We never receive your PIN, and no WakaVoy or operator staff member is authorised to ask for it: if someone does, it is a fraud.

We keep querying the provider until we have the outcome of the transaction. While it is not confirmed, the booking stays pending. If money is debited and no ticket is issued, write to us: we reconcile the transaction with the provider and refund the debit in full.

VAT treatment of the commission and of the collection fee, the handling of the financial transactions tax, and whether an invoice must be issued to the passenger, are TO VERIFY 4.

7. Cancellation and refunds

The operator sets the policy

WakaVoy does not impose a single refund policy. Each operator sets its own in the portal, within these limits:

Setting	What it does	Limits
Refunds enabled	An operator may offer none at all.	Yes or no
Cut-off before departure	Past this point, no refund is possible.	0 to 168 hours (7 days) — 24 hours by default
Percentage refunded	The share of the fare returned to you.	0 to 100% — 80% by default
Minimum cancellation fee	A floor amount the operator keeps.	0 XAF by default

How the amount is worked out

Before you confirm a request, the platform shows you the exact breakdown: gross refund, fees retained, and the sum that will actually reach you. Three points are worth stating plainly:

• the transfer fee is yours to bear and is deducted from the refund. The Mobile Money operator charges it to send the money back;
• the collection fee you paid at purchase is never refunded. It went to the payment provider, not to us or to the operator;
• if the net amount falls to zero once fees are deducted, the request is refused and the ticket stays valid. At that point you are better off travelling.

Where the money goes

The refund goes back to the original payment method: the Mobile Money number that paid, or the card that was debited. On a group booking, the whole amount goes to the booker's number, even when only some passengers are cancelled. We never refund to a number other than the one that paid, and we do not issue credit.

The request is sent to the provider as soon as it is confirmed. How long the money then takes to arrive depends on the Mobile Money operator or the card issuer, and is outside our control. If the transfer fails, the ticket stays valid and you can try again.

When a refund is not possible

• the ticket was paid in cash at a counter: the platform never held that money, the operator collected it. The refund is settled at the counter, directly with them;
• the operator's cut-off has passed, including after the departure time;
• the operator offers no refund on that journey;
• the ticket is not confirmed, or has already been cancelled or refunded;
• you are cancelling part of a group booking where the operator does not allow it.

If the operator cancels

Where the cancellation comes from the operator or from WakaVoy — coach off the road, departure withdrawn, operator account closed — you are refunded the full fare, with no cancellation fee and no transfer fee, whether the cut-off has passed or not. The platform absorbs those fees.

That refund covers the fare. It does not cover the other consequences of a withdrawn departure — a night in a hotel, a missed connection, an alternative journey. Those claims go to the operator, on the terms of section 10.

Whether this arrangement complies with the rights Cameroonian law gives consumers mandatorily is TO VERIFY 12.

8. What the operator answers for

The operator named on your ticket is solely responsible for the journey and everything around it. In particular it answers for:

• the accuracy of the schedules, boarding points, fares and seats it publishes;
• running the journey: departure, route, stops, arrival, and any delay, early departure, diversion or withdrawal;
• the condition, maintenance and roadworthiness of its vehicles;
• the qualification of its drivers and the conduct of its staff, on board and at the counter;
• passenger safety during the journey;
• carrying, keeping and returning luggage, and the rules it applies to it — weight, number of items, prohibited goods;
• the compulsory insurance covering its business and its passengers;
• holding and keeping valid its transport licence and every authorisation required to operate;
• compliance with road traffic law and transport regulations;
• its own refund policy and the information it requires at booking;
• its own tax and social security obligations.

The operator indemnifies WakaVoy against any claim by a passenger or a third party arising from any of these failures.

We check an operator's company documents before activating it. That check covers the existence and apparent validity of the documents — it is not an approval, not a safety audit, and not a guarantee of the quality of the service delivered.

9. What WakaVoy answers for

We answer for the platform itself, which means:

• displaying the operator's offer faithfully, without altering it;
• keeping seat availability up to date and not selling the same numbered seat twice;
• processing payment through our providers and collecting only the amount displayed;
• issuing the ticket as soon as payment is confirmed, and sending it to your phone and by SMS;
• applying the operator's refund policy as it stood when you booked, and paying the refunds due;
• settling to the operator the sums that belong to it;
• protecting the data entrusted to us, as described in our privacy policy;
• keeping the platform running and telling you about prolonged interruptions.

We run the platform seriously, but we do not guarantee uninterrupted availability. Maintenance, a Mobile Money outage, an SMS network failure or a hosting problem can make it temporarily unavailable. An outage does not invalidate tickets already issued: they remain good against the operator, and the operator can verify the QR code by other means.

Sums collected on an operator's behalf are held until they are settled. The legal and accounting treatment of those funds while held, and whether they must be ring-fenced, are TO VERIFY 15.

10. Limitation of liability

This section is where the platform-and-carrier split really bites. It is written firmly, but without pretending to exclude liability that the law does not allow to be excluded. The extent of the rights Cameroonian law gives consumers mandatorily — which override everything below — is TO VERIFY 6.

What we do not answer for

Because WakaVoy is not the carrier, we do not answer for, and no compensation may be claimed from us for:

• a delay, an early departure, a diversion or the withdrawal of a departure;
• a road accident, whatever its consequences;
• personal injury or death occurring during the journey, at boarding or at alighting;
• loss, theft or damage to luggage or personal belongings;
• refusal of boarding by the operator, for whatever reason;
• the conduct of the operator's staff, drivers, agents or of other passengers;
• the condition of the vehicle, its equipment, or its lack of insurance;
• a missed connection, a missed appointment, lost accommodation or any other indirect loss connected to the journey;
• inaccurate information published by an operator, where we have reproduced it as they entered it.

Those claims lie against the operator, which answers for them under transport law and under its own insurance policy.

What we do answer for

We do answer for our own failures, and in particular for:

• a payment debited without a ticket being issued;
• an amount collected that is higher than the one displayed to you;
• a refund that is due and not paid;
• a settlement that is due to an operator and not executed;
• a breach of our security obligations over the data you entrust to us.

Where we are liable, the compensation we owe is capped at the total sums collected on the booking concerned, plus the commission we earned on it. TO VERIFY 7: the validity and the level of that cap must be confirmed.

11. Acceptable use

In using the platform, you must not:

• book under a false identity, with someone else's number without their knowledge, or with a payment instrument that is not yours;
• abusively dispute a legitimate payment, or engineer a baseless refund claim;
• resell a ticket, transfer it for money or trade in tickets. The ticket is personal and not transferable;
• forge a ticket, a QR code or a booking reference, or use a ticket that was not issued to you;
• hoard seats with no intention of travelling, in particular to block an operator's inventory;
• automatically extract schedules, fares or availability (bots, scrapers), or call our technical interfaces outside normal use of the app;
• attempt to circumvent security measures, access another operator's or another passenger's data, or probe the platform without written authorisation;
• insult, threaten or harass an operator's staff, a driver, another passenger or our team;
• use the platform for money laundering, fraud or any other unlawful activity.

A security flaw found in good faith should be reported to security@wakavoy.com. A fair report, with no exploitation and no disclosure, will not lead to any action from us.

12. Intellectual property

The platform — its code, its interfaces, its text, its visual identity, the WakaVoy name and logo — belongs to us or is licensed to us. Your right is limited to using it to book a journey or, for an operator, to run its ticketing. No reproduction, adaptation, decompilation or commercial exploitation is permitted without our written agreement.

An operator's name, logo and images remain its own. By publishing them on the platform, it authorises us to display them to passengers to identify its departures, tickets and stations, for as long as it is registered.

The data you enter remains yours. We process it to run the service, as described in our privacy policy.

13. Personal data

What we collect, why, who we share it with, how long we keep it and what you can ask for are set out in our privacy policy, which forms part of these terms.

Three points from it are worth repeating here:

• the operator you booked with has access to your booking details: it needs them to run the journey, and it is the operator that decides which fields are required at booking;
• our application servers are in the European Union, so your data is processed outside Cameroon, while SMS delivery goes through a relay located in Cameroon;
• we do not sell your data and do not use it for advertising.

The legal framework applicable to this processing, the lawfulness of the transfer to the European Union, the retention periods, and the treatment of the periodic transaction reports sent to our Mobile Money partner are TO VERIFY 10.

14. Suspension, closure and deletion

What we may do

We may refuse a booking, block a phone number, or suspend or close an operator account where:

• these terms are breached, in particular section 11;
• fraud, impersonation or a suspicious transaction is found;
• an operator's documents have expired or been falsified, or its transport licence is no longer valid;
• an operator endangers its passengers or seriously fails its obligations;
• a competent authority orders us to.

Except in an emergency or where the law requires otherwise, we tell you and give the reason. A suspension for an expired document is lifted as soon as the current document is uploaded.

What happens to tickets and money in flight

Closing an operator's account does not cancel tickets already sold: either the operator runs the departures concerned, or the passengers are refunded in full. Sums still owed to the operator are settled after deducting refunds, commission and anything it owes us.

Stopping using the platform

As a passenger you have no account to close: simply stop booking. An operator may ask for its account to be closed at any time, provided it honours departures already sold.

Deleting your passenger account

You can ask for your account to be deleted from within the app. Because your account is your phone number, the request covers all your bookings, with every operator you have travelled with. It needs two proofs: your current session and a fresh code sent by SMS. The session alone is not enough, so that a stolen handset cannot wipe your tickets.

What deletion does, and what it does not do:

• Erased: your name, your phone number, your email address, the details the operator required at booking (identity document, next of kin) and the booker's contact details.
• Kept: amounts, fees, statuses, booking and payment references, seats and dates. These are the accounting record of a transport and electronic-money business: they are used to settle operators, to meet our tax obligations and for anti-money-laundering purposes, and we cannot delete them. They are attached to a random identifier that does not lead back to you.

The request is refused, temporarily, in two cases:

• a payment or a refund is still in flight — a matter of minutes, until the transaction resolves;
• you still have a journey ahead — your booking is the document the driver checks. Travel or cancel first.

Deletion is permanent: your past tickets can no longer be found from your number. You can also write to contact@wakavoy.com, in particular if you no longer have access to the line you booked with.

The line drawn here between what is erased and what is kept, and the retention periods that apply, are TO VERIFY 11.

15. Changes to these terms

We may change these terms, in particular to reflect a change in the service or in regulation. The version that applies is the one published on this page, dated at the top.

Where a change is substantial:

• registered operators are told by email and in the portal, with reasonable notice before it takes effect;
• passengers are told in the app at their next booking.

A change never applies retroactively to a ticket already issued. Your journey stays governed by the terms in force on the day you booked, refunds included.

The notice period to give operators is TO VERIFY 14.

16. Governing law and disputes

First, the right door

Send your complaint to whoever it concerns. Something that happened during the journey — delay, luggage, conduct, refused boarding — is settled with the operator. A payment, ticket or refund problem is settled with us, at contact@wakavoy.com. Quote your booking reference: it is the fastest way to find the file.

We acknowledge every complaint and aim to answer within a few business days. Where the complaint concerns the journey, we can act as an intermediary with the operator, without that putting us in their place.

Then, the law

These terms are governed by Cameroonian law. Failing an amicable settlement, the dispute goes before the competent courts of Douala or Yaoundé.

17. Contact us

For any question about these terms, about a booking, a payment or a refund: contact@wakavoy.com.

To report a security flaw, a fraud or a data breach: security@wakavoy.com.

To get your company approved, or to understand which documents are expected, see our support page. How we handle your data is set out in our privacy policy.

18. Points for your lawyer to settle

This section is a working tool, not a contractual clause. It must be deleted before publication, together with the banner at the top and the TO VERIFY markers in the body. Each point links back to exactly where the assumption was made.

1. Which entity collects the money

   The contracting entity is settled and now written into section 1: Zihne Cameroun Sarl, RCCM no. RC/YAO/2024/B/581, taxpayer no. M032416606321N, registered office BP 13240, Simbock, Yaoundé, a subsidiary of Zihne Ltd (United Kingdom, Companies House no. 15054478).

   Resolved: card payment is switched off. Card collection would have been run by the UK entity while Mobile Money collection and settlement are Cameroonian. Our counsel has confirmed that routing card payments for wholly Cameroonian journeys that way breaches CEMAC exchange-control rules. Bank card is therefore no longer offered, and can only return once the collecting entity is settled — either the Stripe account moves to the Sarl, or collection by the parent on behalf of its subsidiary is formalised in a written intra-group agreement.

   ↑ Section 1

2. Payment intermediary status

   The platform collects passengers' money, holds it until settlement falls due, then pays it to operators. Does that require an authorisation (BEAC / COBAC, Ministry of Finance), electronic-money agent status, or is the MTN Mobile Money merchant contract enough? Also check the anti-money-laundering obligations that follow, beyond the controls already in place.

   ↑ Section 6

3. Risk of being recharacterised as a carrier

   The whole balance of this document rests on WakaVoy not being the carrier. Confirm that the platform needs no transport licence, and above all that it is not at risk of being recharacterised as a freight/transport agent or a travel organiser — which would put the carriage liability on it and hollow out sections 8, 9 and 10. Check whether certain features (listing several operators, issuing the ticket, collecting the fare) weigh in that analysis.

   ↑ Section 1

4. VAT, taxes and invoicing

   Nothing in the platform computes VAT today. Settle the VAT treatment of the 3% commission and of the collection fees, the handling of the financial transactions tax (absorbed by the platform per internal documentation, but not implemented), and whether a receipt or invoice must be issued to the passenger — and by whom, the operator or the platform.

   ↑ Section 6

5. Minimum age and capacity to contract

   The platform asks passengers for no date of birth and no identity document, and runs no age check. Confirm the age of contractual majority that applies, whether a minor may book, whether a guardian's approval is needed, and whether an age declaration should be added to the booking flow.

   ↑ Section 4

6. Mandatory consumer rights

   List what Cameroonian consumer law requires and these terms therefore cannot exclude: pre-contractual information, any right of withdrawal on a distance sale, clauses deemed unfair. Check in particular the liability cap in section 10, the no-refund-on-no-show rule, and the freedom given to operators to refund as little as 0%.

   ↑ Section 10

7. Limitation and cap on liability

   Confirm that the proposed cap — sums collected on the booking, plus the commission — is permissible, and recalibrate it if needed. Check that the exclusions in section 10 are properly drafted, and that the carve-out for wilful misconduct, gross negligence, fraud and personal injury covers everything that cannot be excluded under Cameroonian law.

   ↑ Section 10

8. Governing law and jurisdiction

   Settle the final clause: Douala, Yaoundé or the forum of the registered office; whether that choice binds a consumer passenger; application of the OHADA Uniform Acts to the operator relationship; whether an arbitration clause (CCJA) is preferable for operator disputes; and which law actually governs if the contracting company is not Cameroonian.

   ↑ Section 16

9. Electronic contracting and proof of the ticket

   Confirm the validity of acceptance given by confirming in the app, the evidential weight of the signed QR code and the booking reference, and the mandatory disclosures for an online sale in Cameroon. Decide whether a timestamped record of the passenger's acceptance must be kept — the platform stores none today.

   ↑ Section 3

10. Data protection

    Identify the applicable framework and the competent authority, the lawfulness of hosting in the European Union, and any filings required. Also review the monthly transaction report sent to MTN Mobile Money Cameroon, which contains passengers' phone numbers, and check that these terms and the privacy policy agree.

    ↑ Section 13

11. Deletion of passenger data

    Caution: the feature described in section 14 is built but not yet released to production. Confirm it is live before publishing that paragraph, otherwise the text promises a right the app does not yet offer.

    On the substance, have the dividing line validated: erasing the passenger's identity (name, phone, email, operator-required documents) while keeping, under a random identifier, the amounts, statuses and payment references for accounting, tax and anti-money-laundering purposes. Confirm that this anonymisation counts as deletion in law, settle the applicable retention periods, and validate the two temporary refusal cases (payment in flight, upcoming journey).

    ↑ Section 14

12. Limits on the refund policy

    Check that it is lawful to let each operator freely set the cut-off, the percentage and the minimum fee, including refunding nothing at all. Also check that the Mobile Money transfer fee may be deducted from the passenger's refund, that the collection fee need not be returned, and that excluding counter cash tickets is enforceable.

    ↑ Section 7

13. Failure to board

    Confirm that no mandatory rule requires refunding, even partly, a passenger who does not turn up once the operator's cut-off has passed. The platform has no automatic handling of this case today.

    ↑ Section 5

14. Suspension, termination and notice

    Set the notice period before a substantial change takes effect, and check that unilateral suspension or closure of an operator account — and withholding sums due until refunds are cleared — is permissible under contract law and distribution law.

    ↑ Section 14

15. Status of funds awaiting settlement

    Between collection and settlement the platform holds money belonging to operators — release happens when the refund window closes, and settlement is deferred while it stays below 5,000 XAF. Determine how those funds are characterised, whether they must be held in a segregated account, and what would happen to them if the company failed.

    ↑ Section 9