CHAPTER ONE BACK GROUND OF STUDY 1.1 INTRODUCTION The trend shows that more Nigerians do financial transactions electronically via banks ATMs, internet banking and SMS- banking. It was reported that in Nigeria major bank, the number of ATM transactions is 3.5 to 4 million (of total 5 million transactions) in a single day. In another bank, the ATM transactions are increased by 32% annually. Still, the banks in Nigeria seem to be confident that the ATM transactions would keep on increasing in the next several years as they continue to add more ATMs in the entire areas of Nigeria. As reported, currently, web technology has also been used widely. In line with this trend, the internet transactions in Nigeria are also increased fantastically (up to87% in a single quarter) so is the SMS and mobile banking transactions. With this trend, it could be said that conducting transactions electronically has been becoming necessity and way of life of Nigerians. By considering the trend, it is necessary that higher education institutions (HEIs) in Nigeria, where most depend on the students’ fees to operate, provide electronic payment services for the students. Since students in an HEI might origin from all over area of Nigeria, and their fees might be paid directly by their parents, it would be best if the payment system could be accessed through the banks wide ATM network, internet, and cellular network established in Nigeria. What a pity, though, the result of our survey on the HEI websites reveals that among more than 3000 HEIs in Nigeria, only less than one thousand have been operating “online system payment” where most of their online systems accept payment transactions conducted in limited or a few banks network only. Certainly, this could be considered as a drawback in terms of catching up with IT use and fulfilling the Nigerians needs of electronic transactions. By conducting limited survey on a few HEIs, I also found the fact that the financial HEI managements nowadays still encounter problems related to balancing the total of student bills with the actual payment made. They are also having difficulties in generating the up to date yet accurate financial reports. These, of course, cause inefficiencies in the HEIs. Developing Electronic Payment System (EPS) to handle union bills and payment is a complex task, since students’ and parents’ behavior as well as their needs, HEI management requirement, integration with the academic information system, IT infrastructure, banks products offered and banks collaboration must be addressed. The task is also challenging as the literatures acknowledge that IT projects are high-risk. (It was reported that 34% of IT projects were late or over budget, 31% were abandoned, scaled back or modified, only 24% were completed on time and on budget. Also reported that only 28% of software development projects were successful.) Contributions: Despite the urgent needs of EPS for HEIs and the challenge in developing one, we could find research results of EPS concerning with e- commerce or government institutions only. Therefore, this paper is intended to contribute in presenting the development method and model of EPS for student unions (a HEIs type with the largest number in Nigeria), which specifically ensure the project success. Our approach is: We define the key success factors in the early stage of requirement gathering, then, in the following stages, the student union government policies and system models are designed in such a way to ensure that key success factors are achieved. As the banks maintain confidentiality of their system for the sake of security, detailed discussion of the system development could only be presented for the system component owned by the student union. The research is conducted in a well-known polytechnic in Nigeria. 1.2 CASE STUDY: STUDENT UNION GOVERNMENT (OGITECH CHAPTER) Student Union Government (OGITECH CHAPTER) was founded in 2013 with some elected executives, legislative and electoral body; some of the executives are president, vice president, transport director, sports director general secretary and etc. The student union Government comprises of 3 organ namely: 1. The Executive Council 2. The Student Representative Council 3. The Judiciary 1. EXECUTION COUNCIL FUNCTIONS The management of the union shall be entrusted to an executive council, which shall serve for one academic year. The executive shall be elected in the second semester. The executive council shall super intend and control the affair of the union and cater for the interest of its members. It shall submit its annual budget of less 15% of its total income to the student representative council within a month into a new academic session. The 15% saving will be paid into a separate account known as the student trust account, such savings would be used for contingency purpose (s) that are beneficial to the student body subject to the approval of the S.R.C PRESIDENT, DIRECTOR OF FINANCE and TREASURER. The executive council shall organize an annual student union week otherwise known as “POLYWEEK” in accordance with the article 2© of the constitution. It shall be the responsibility of the union executive to fix union dues subject to approval of the student representative council which shall be paid into specified account in the bank. Membership fee shall be subject to review when necessary by the executive council to meet the needs of the union. Such fees shall be approved by the student representative council. The executive council shall prepare the semester programme and present if to the house of representative within a month into the semester for approval. The house of representative shall within 7 days of receiving the programme return the vetted version to the executive council for presentation to the house of senate for ratification. In the event of any matter arising which is not wholly or in any part covered by the rules of the union, the executive council with the approval of the student representative council shall have powers deal with such matter to the best of the union. Shall exercise any other duties that may be assigned to it by the student representative council OFFICER AND QUALIFICATION OF THE EXECUTIVE COUNCIL The executive council comprises of: i. President ii. Vice President iii. Secretary General iv. Assistant Secretary General v. Director of Socials vi. Director of Publicity vii. Director of Welfare viii. DeputyDirector of Welfare ix. Director of Finance x. Treasurer xi. Director of Sports Any student union member shall be qualified to vote and be voted for to serve in the executive council provided such student is: A fully registered student of the polytechnic Has obtained a cumulative grade point of not below 2.50 (with or without carry over) in the current session or in the absence of the first semester result a G.P.A of not less than 2.50 at the end of the previous session. Is not found to have been involve in fraud, misappropriation of fund and anti-union activities within then polytechnic Is not a member of any unlawful association within and outside the polytechnic Is not on industrial attachment Is not gainfully employed by any employer Does not hold execution position in any registered club/society or if he hold such position (s) shall relinquish same prior or nomination.