These Terms & Conditions govern access to and use of the Top Awards website, nomination services, voting services, nominee accounts, campaign tools, communications, wallet features and withdrawal services. By using the platform, you agree to these terms and to any edition-specific rules published for the award in which you participate.
1. About the platform
Top Awards provides digital tools for managing award editions, nominations, nominee profiles, public voting, leaderboards, communications and, where enabled, nominee earnings and withdrawals. Individual award editions may have their own dates, categories, voting prices, eligibility rules, leaderboard settings and nominee revenue-share arrangements.
2. Eligibility and acceptable use
You may use Top Awards only for lawful purposes. You are responsible for ensuring that information you submit is accurate, current and not misleading. You must not impersonate another person, create fraudulent nominee profiles, misuse another person's contact details or use the platform in a way that interferes with its security, availability or integrity.
3. Nominations
Public, self and administrative nominations may be available depending on the edition. Submitting a nomination does not guarantee approval or publication. Top Awards may review, request clarification, reject, withdraw or remove a nomination that does not meet the relevant edition rules, contains inaccurate information, infringes another person's rights or creates a security, legal or reputational risk.
A nominee may have one permanent profile linked to multiple nominations across different categories and editions. Where the platform detects that a nominee already exists, a new nomination may be linked to the existing profile rather than creating a duplicate account.
4. Nominee accounts and profile claiming
A nominee who has been approved may be invited to claim their profile. Claim links are personal, time-limited and may be used only by the intended nominee or an authorised representative. You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your password and for activity performed through your account.
Top Awards may suspend access where account ownership is disputed, suspicious activity is detected or verification is reasonably required.
5. Voting and vote pricing
Votes may be paid. The price per vote is displayed before payment and may vary by edition, category or nomination where a permitted override has been configured. You choose the number of votes before payment and should review the total amount shown on the payment prompt.
A vote is credited only when the payment provider confirms a successful transaction. Initiating an STK Push, receiving a prompt or seeing a pending transaction does not by itself create votes.
6. Payment authorisation
Payments are processed through third-party payment providers and mobile-money networks. You must use a payment method that you are authorised to use. Top Awards does not ask you to disclose your M-PESA PIN and you must never send your PIN to a nominee, administrator or support representative.
Provider outages, network delays or mobile-money interruptions may delay payment confirmation. The platform may keep a transaction pending while its final status is verified.
7. Refunds, reversals and payment disputes
Because paid votes are digital participation services that may affect a live ranking immediately after confirmation, confirmed voting payments are generally treated as final except where a duplicate charge, provider reversal, technical error or other circumstance requires correction. Any refund or reversal request is subject to verification of the payment record, the applicable edition rules and the payment provider's processes.
If a confirmed payment is reversed by the provider, Top Awards may reverse or adjust the associated votes, nominee earnings and platform accounting records to keep the system reconciled.
8. Fair voting and prohibited activity
You must not attempt to manipulate the awards through stolen payment instruments, automated abuse, false payment confirmations, interference with callbacks, unauthorised access, exploitation of software defects or any other fraudulent method. Top Awards may block requests, suspend accounts, remove affected votes, freeze withdrawals or investigate transactions where misuse is reasonably suspected.
9. Leaderboards and results
Leaderboard visibility is controlled by the applicable edition. An edition may show rankings and vote totals, rankings without totals, or hide the leaderboard. Public leaderboard positions may change as new verified votes are received or as reversed/invalid transactions are corrected. Final award results may also be subject to edition-specific judging, verification or eligibility requirements.
10. Nominee earnings
Nominee earnings are available only where expressly enabled. A nominee does not automatically earn a share from every edition. The applicable share may be set at edition level and, where allowed, overridden for a category or individual nomination.
Earnings are calculated from verified eligible voting revenue and recorded in the nominee wallet ledger. Figures shown as pending, reserved or unavailable are not withdrawable until they satisfy the platform rules.
11. Withdrawals
Where withdrawals are enabled, nominees may request payout to an eligible mobile-money number subject to minimum and maximum amounts, daily limits, fees, account status and any administrative approval requirements. A requested amount may be reserved immediately so the same balance cannot be withdrawn twice.
A withdrawal is complete only after the payout provider confirms success. Failed or cancelled payouts may be restored through a separate ledger reversal. Where provider status is uncertain, funds may remain reserved while the transaction is investigated to avoid an accidental duplicate payout.
12. Communications
Top Awards may send operational communications relating to nominations, account claiming, password resets, voting, campaigns, withdrawals, security and platform administration by email, SMS or in-app notification. Marketing or promotional communications will be handled according to applicable consent requirements and communication preferences where provided.
13. Content and intellectual property
You should submit only text, photos, logos and other material that you own, are authorised to use or are legally permitted to provide. By submitting content for publication, you grant the platform the limited rights required to display, resize, optimise, distribute and promote that content in connection with the award and nominee profile.
The Top Awards platform design, software, databases, branding elements and original platform content remain protected by applicable intellectual-property laws.
14. Availability and changes
We aim to keep the service available and accurate, but uninterrupted operation cannot be guaranteed. Maintenance, hosting failures, payment-provider interruptions, network issues or security events may temporarily affect features. We may change, improve, suspend or discontinue a feature where reasonably necessary.
15. Suspension and termination
Top Awards may restrict or suspend a user, nominee account, nomination, voting activity or withdrawal where these terms, edition rules, law, security controls or financial-integrity requirements are breached. Where practical, affected users may be given an opportunity to provide clarification.
16. Limitation of responsibility
Top Awards provides the platform and digital award-management services. To the extent permitted by law, we are not responsible for indirect losses arising from third-party network failures, payment-provider outages, unauthorised user conduct or information submitted by third parties. Nothing in these terms excludes rights or responsibilities that cannot lawfully be excluded.
17. Governing law
Unless an edition expressly states otherwise, these terms are governed by the laws of Kenya. Any dispute should first be raised with Top Awards in good faith so that the parties can attempt an appropriate resolution before pursuing other remedies available under law.
18. Changes to these terms
These terms may be updated as the platform, payment methods, regulations or award processes evolve. The latest published version on this page applies from its publication date. Material changes may also be communicated through the platform where appropriate.
19. Contact
Questions about these terms, a transaction, a nomination or an account can be submitted through the official contact details published on the Contact page. Never include your mobile-money PIN in a support message.