Own-risk notices and member terms under Nigeria's FCCPA
Whether a Nigerian gym can rely on "use at your own risk" signs and liability-excluding terms, what the FCCPA says, and how to keep signed member terms.
By Achekam · · 5 min read · For Fitness businesses in Nigeria
Walk into almost any gym in Lagos or Abuja and you will see it: a laminated sign by the reception desk or on the wall of the weights room saying "All equipment is used at the member's own risk. Management accepts no liability for injury, loss or damage." The same words are usually repeated in the small print of the membership form.
Owners put the signs up hoping they will protect the business if a member is hurt or a locker is broken into. Under Nigeria's Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Act (FCCPA), that hope is misplaced for the situations that matter most. This article explains what the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) says the Act provides, how to rewrite member terms so they are useful, and how to keep each signed agreement on file. It is general guidance; have a Nigerian lawyer review your own terms.
Section 129: what a notice cannot exclude
The FCCPC states that section 129 of the FCCPA makes any notice or agreement void and of no effect if it purports to limit, exclude or waive a business's liability for defective performance, fraud, negligence or misrepresentation, or to waive implied obligations.
Apply that to the laminated sign. If a member is injured because a cable on a machine was frayed and nobody had checked it, the injury flows from the gym's negligence or defective service. A notice saying the gym accepts no liability for injury is exactly the kind of notice section 129 is aimed at. The same applies to a clause in the membership agreement that tries to do the same thing.
What the sign can still do is warn. Telling members to warm up, to ask for help with unfamiliar equipment, or not to train alone on heavy lifts is useful safety information. The problem is only with wording that tries to remove the gym's responsibility for its own failures.
The practical consequence is that the real protection lies in the gym's own conduct: equipment maintained and inspected, staff trained, hazards fixed when reported, and records showing all of that happened.
Terms members can actually read
The FCCPC states that section 114 of the FCCPA requires businesses to give information about their products and services in plain language that consumers can easily understand. A membership agreement written in dense legal language, printed small on the back of a form that the member signs in a hurry at the front desk, struggles to meet that standard.
Rewrite the agreement so that a member can understand it in one reading:
- what the membership includes, and what costs extra;
- the joining fee and the monthly or annual fee;
- how and when the member can cancel, and what that costs;
- the house rules, including safety rules, in short sentences;
- what the gym will do if equipment is out of order or a class is cancelled.
Short headings and plain sentences help. So does giving the member a copy to take away.
Promotions that limit refunds
Many gyms sell discounted annual memberships or promotional packages on the understanding that they cannot be refunded. The FCCPC's summary of section 120 is relevant here: it gives consumers the right to reasonably cancel advance bookings and reservations and receive refunds subject to reasonable cancellation charges, and where a price or promotion restricts refunds, the consumer must be informed in writing.
So if your January promotion offers a lower annual price in exchange for no refunds, put that restriction in writing on the promotion's terms and in the agreement the member signs, before they pay. A restriction mentioned only verbally at the desk is hard to rely on. How a gym charges a fee when a member cancels early, and records it, is set out in charging a fee when a member cancels early.
The full price, before the member pays
The FCCPC states that section 115 of the FCCPA requires businesses to fully disclose material facts including prices, and that displayed prices must be equivalent to the point-of-payment price. A poster advertising a monthly fee, when the member then discovers a joining fee, an access card fee and a compulsory assessment at the desk, falls foul of that.
Show the full price of joining in one place: the joining fee, the first month, any card or assessment fees. Make the advertised price the price a member pays. The FCCPC's consumer rights and responsibilities page sets out its summary of these sections of the Act, and is the right page to read alongside your terms.
On Achekam, a member who joins on account receives a customer invoice. Invoices start as drafts that can be changed or deleted before they are issued; issuing one takes the next number in the sequence and posts it to the ledger. Putting every joining charge on that one invoice, as described in invoicing a joining fee and the first month, means the member sees the same total you advertised, and the books record it.
Keeping each signed agreement and its version
A membership agreement is only useful if the gym can produce the version a particular member signed. Terms change; a member who joined two years ago signed different wording from one who joined last week.
On Achekam, the gym can build its membership agreement as a saved template, with merge fields for the member's name and the fees, and send it for electronic signature. Signature and initials fields are placed on the document, and the envelope can carry an expiry and reminders for members who leave without signing. When it is signed, the signed PDF and a completion certificate are filed back into Documents.
In the Document Centre, keep the agreement template itself under version control: when you update the terms, upload the new version and the earlier ones are kept. That way, if a dispute arises, you can show both the agreement the member signed and the template that was in force at the time.
A short review for the owner
Take down any sign that claims the gym accepts no liability for injury, and replace it with practical safety guidance. Rewrite the membership agreement in plain language, with every fee and any refund restriction stated in writing. Check that your advertised prices match what members pay. Then make sure every new member signs the current version, and that you can find it when you need it.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
