1. Scope
This policy applies to everyone who uses the OhShip platform: logistics providers, their staff, developers using our API, and end customers booking shipments on branded sites. It forms part of our Terms of Service.
Carrier and legal rules apply on top
Each carrier maintains its own prohibited and restricted items list, and Nigerian law, destination-country law and international aviation rules apply independently. A parcel that satisfies this policy may still be refused by a carrier or seized by an authority. Where the rules differ, the strictest applies.
2. Prohibited goods
The following must never be booked, tendered or transported through the platform, under any service or to any destination:
- Narcotics, controlled substances and illegal drugs, and the precursors or paraphernalia used to produce them.
- Firearms, ammunition, weapon parts, explosives, fireworks and military ordnance.
- Counterfeit, pirated or otherwise infringing goods, and goods known or suspected to be stolen.
- Human remains, human body parts, organs, and biological or medical waste.
- Live animals, and products from endangered species restricted under CITES, including ivory and pangolin scales.
- Currency, bullion, bearer instruments and precious stones, except where a carrier expressly permits them under a declared, insured service.
- Child sexual abuse material and any obscene material that is unlawful in the origin or destination country.
- Goods, persons or entities subject to sanctions, and shipments to embargoed destinations.
- Radioactive material, infectious substances and toxic or corrosive chemicals prohibited under IATA dangerous-goods rules.
- Undeclared dangerous goods of any kind, and any item mis-declared to evade a carrier restriction, a customs duty or a legal requirement.
3. Restricted goods
The following may be shipped only where the sender declares them accurately, holds any licence or permit required, and the selected carrier and service permit them.
| Category | What is required |
|---|---|
| Lithium batteries and devices containing them | Correct declaration, compliant packaging and labelling under IATA rules; some services will refuse them entirely. |
| Pharmaceuticals and medical devices | Any licence NAFDAC or the destination authority requires; prescription-only items may not be shipped to consumers without authorisation. |
| Alcohol and tobacco | Applicable licences, duties and age-verification requirements in origin and destination countries. |
| Perishables and temperature-sensitive goods | A service that supports them; the sender bears the risk of spoilage. |
| Aerosols, flammables and pressurised containers | Dangerous-goods declaration and a service that accepts them. |
| High-value goods, electronics and jewellery | Accurate declared value and, where offered, insurance. Undeclared value limits any claim. |
| Plants, seeds, agricultural and food products | Phytosanitary certificates and import permits for the destination. |
4. Prohibited conduct
You must not use the platform to:
- commit or facilitate fraud, money laundering, terrorist financing, sanctions evasion, tax evasion or smuggling;
- impersonate another person or business, or misrepresent the origin, contents or value of a shipment;
- create accounts with false information, or evade a suspension by opening a new account;
- share account credentials or API keys, or access an account you are not authorised to use;
- attempt to access another provider's tenant data, or to circumvent the platform's isolation, authentication or authorisation controls;
- probe, scan or test the security of the platform without our prior written permission, or run any denial-of-service or load attack;
- introduce malware, or use the platform to distribute malicious code;
- reverse-engineer, decompile, scrape or copy the platform, or resell access to it other than to serve your own end customers; or
- infringe intellectual property rights, including using a brand name, logo or mark you have no right to use.
5. Messaging and notifications
Our notification infrastructure exists to send transactional messages — booking confirmations, status updates, delivery alerts, invoices. It must not be used to send unsolicited bulk marketing, deceptive or phishing content, or messages to recipients who have not consented or have opted out. The provider sending a message is responsible for its content, lawfulness and consent basis.
6. API and technical limits
- Stay within any published or communicated rate limits, and do not work around them by rotating keys or accounts.
- Do not poll endpoints at a frequency that degrades service for others; use webhooks where they are available.
- Keep API keys secret. Rotate them promptly if exposed, and tell us at support@ohship.africa.
- Do not use the API to build a competing white-label logistics platform, or to extract bulk data for resale.
7. Enforcement
Where we reasonably believe this policy has been breached, we may take any of the following steps, proportionate to the breach, with or without prior notice where the risk is serious:
- request an explanation or corrective action within a set period;
- block or cancel a specific shipment or transaction;
- restrict features, such as disabling creation of new shipments while leaving in-flight shipments and tracking operational;
- suspend the account or the branded applications;
- terminate for cause under our Terms of Service; and
- report the matter to law enforcement, a regulator or the affected carrier, and preserve records where required to do so.
Fees continue to accrue during restriction or suspension. Suspension is not termination and does not waive amounts owed.
8. Reporting abuse
If you become aware of a shipment, account or use of the platform that breaches this policy, report it to support@ohship.africa with as much detail as you can — tracking numbers, account names, dates. We investigate every credible report and will not retaliate against a good-faith reporter.