Section 20: Interpretation, etc.

(1) In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires-
"action" includes counterclaim and set off;
"advertisement" means-
(a) any form of advertising by way of sound broadcasting or by means of a loudspeaker or any other public address system; and
(b) any visual form of advertising (whether or not accompanied by spoken words or other sounds), whether in a publication, or by the display of notices, or by means of catalogues, price lists, labels or other documents, or by the exhibition of cinematograph films or photographs, or by way of television, or in any other way;
"buyer" means a person who buys or agrees to buy goods;
"contract of guarantee" means, in relation to any hire-purchase agreement or credit-sale agreement, a contract, made at the request express or implied of the hirer or buyer, to guarantee the performance of the hirer's or buyer's obligations under the hire-purchase agreement or credit-sale agreement, and the expression "guarantor" shall be construed accordingly;
"credit-sale" means the sale of goods in pursuance of an agreement under which the whole or part of the purchase price is payable by five or more instalments, and "credit-sale agreement" shall be construed accordingly;
"delivery" means voluntary transfer of possession from one person to another;
"deposit" includes any initial payment to be made before or at the time of entering into an agreement;
"directly expressed" means expressed (whether in words or figures or both) otherwise than as a fraction of, or by reference to, some other amount;
"disposal", in relation to goods, includes-
(a) the disposal of the ownership of the goods, or of any proprietary interest in them, or of the right to possession of the goods; and
(b) the disposal of the possession of the goods, whether or not accompanied by any disposal of the ownership of the goods, or of any proprietary interest in them, or of the right to possession of them;
"fraction" includes a proportion expressed as a percentage or in any other way;
"goods" means any chattels personal, other than things in action and money;
"hirer" means the person who takes or has taken goods from an owner under a hire-purchase agreement and includes a person to whom the hirer's rights or liabilities under the agreement have passed by assignment or by operation of law;
"hire-purchase" means the bailment of goods in pursuance of an agreement under which the bailee may buy the goods or under which the property in the goods will or may pass to the bailee, and "hire-purchase agreement" shall be construed accordingly; and where by virtue of two or more agreements, none of which by itself constitutes a hire-purchase agreement, there is a bailment of goods and either the bailee may buy the goods, or the property therein will or may pass to the bailee, the agreements shall be treated for the purposes of this Act as a single agreement made at the time when the last of the agreements was made;
"hire-purchase price" means the total sum payable by the hirer under a hire-purchase agreement in order to complete the purchase of goods to which the agreement relates, exclusive of any sum payable as a penalty or as compensation or damages for breach of the agreement but including any sum payable by the hirer under the agreement by way of deposit or other initial payment, or credited or to be credited to him under the agreement on account of any such deposit or payment, whether that sum is to be or has been paid to the owner or to any other person or is to be or has been discharged by a payment of money or by the transfer or delivery of goods or by any other means;
"the Minister" means the Minister of the Government of the Federation responsible for trade and tourism, and "the Ministry" shall be construed accordingly;
"motor vehicle" means a mechanically propelled vehicle intended or adapted for use on roads or for use for agricultural purposes;
"owner" means the person who lets or has let goods to a hirer under a hire-purchase agreement and includes a person to whom the owner's property in the goods or any of the owner's rights or liabilities under the agreement has passed by assignment or by operation of law;
"property" means the general property in goods and not merely a special property;
"the relevant proportion", where the reference is to the relevant proportion of the hire-purchase price of any goods or to the relevant proportion of a part (however described) of that price, has the meaning assigned by section 9 (4) of this Act;
"sale" includes a bargain and sale as well as sale and delivery;
"seller" means a person who sells or agrees to sell goods;
"total purchase price" means the total sum payable by the buyer under a credit-sale agreement, exclusive of any sum payable as a penalty or as compensation or damages for breach of the agreement but including any sum payable by the buyer under the agreement by way of deposit or other initial payment, or credited or to be credited to him under the agreement on account of any such deposit or payment, whether that sum is to be or has been paid to the seller or to any other person or is to be or has been discharged by a payment of money or by the transfer or delivery of goods or by any other means;
"warranty" means an agreement with reference to goods which are the subject of a contract but collateral to the main purpose of the contract, the breach of which gives rise to a claim for damages but not to a right to reject the goods and treat the contract as repudiated.
(2) Where an owner has agreed that any part of the hire-purchase price may be discharged otherwise than by the payment of money, any such discharge shall, for the purposes of sections 6 to 13 of this Act, be deemed to be a payment of that part of the hire-purchase price.
(3) Where, under any hire-purchase agreement made after the commencement of this Act, the owner is required to carry out any installation, and the note or memorandum of the agreement specifies as part of the hire-purchase price the amount to be paid in respect of the installation-
(a) the reference in section 8 of this Act to one-half of the hire-purchase price shall be construed as a reference to the aggregate of the said amount and one-half of the remainder of the hire-purchase price; and
(b) references in sections 9 to 11 this Act to the relevant proportion of the hire-purchase price shall be construed as references to the aggregate of the said amount and the relevant proportion of the remainder of the hire-purchase price.
(4) For the purposes of subsection (3) of this section, the expression "installation" means-
(a) the installing of any apparatus motivated by or conducting electricity or of any gas or water pipe;
(b) the fixing of goods to which the agreement relates to the premises where they are to be used and the alteration of premises to enable any of the goods to be used there; and
(c) where it is reasonably necessary that any such goods should be constructed or erected on the premises where they are to be used, any work carried out for the purpose of the construction or erection.