GHANA TECHNOLOGY UNIVERSITY COLLEGE

FACULTY OF INFORMATICS

PROJECT PROPOSAL

MOBILE APPLICATION FOR ELECTRICITY PREPAID PURCHASING

SYSTEM.
TOPIC: Mobile Application For Electricity Prepaid Purchasing System.

INTRODUCTION

Online payment systems remain a major factor in today’s ecommerce sector. Because businesses

are expanding globally and also offering online options, the need for alternative forms of

payment are quite significant. The use of online payment systems began in the 1960’s and was

used mainly among financial and banking institutions. It was during this time that ATM’s and

credit cards were first introduced to consumers. Since then, the use of online payment systems

has increased substantially and has changed the way consumers do business. Online payment

systems have also served as a catalyst for new business formations and social practice.

Online Credit Card Payment Systems are by far the most popular and are widely accepted

globally. The biggest advantage of this system is the convenience and ease of use it provides to

the consumer. Disadvantages include having to release sensitive information on the internet and

possibly having to reveal information on various websites and other platforms.

In Ghana there are several ways of fulfilling payment by help of our telecoms and the

introduction interoperability between them in terms of money transfer. Consumers can online

transactions with the use of Mobile Money and other third party platforms like ExpressPay. In

our project this is the means we are going to use to fulfil payments.

BACKGROUND

Electricity prepay system provides consumers of electricity power the platform to pay for their

electricity tariffs in advance in order to enjoy the services provide by the Electricity Company of

Ghana. (E.C.G).
Consumers of this service basically, are been given prepay cards, that he or she takes to the prepay

vendor any time he or she runs out of prepay unit for purchase of new prepay unit. The prepay

card is then loaded with a fresh prepay unit by the prepay vendor. After this process, consumer

then place the card on the swipe area of the prepay meter.

Final step, the meter then reads every information expected, that’s consumer personal information

and amount purchased. From that very minute onwards, deductions are being made per

consumption of power till there’s nothing to deduct anymore then, automatically the system cuts

off power supply and everything goes off.

The challenge here is, imagine this happened in the middle of the night, it leaves the consumer or

the customer with no option than to endure everything that comes with power cut out, he or she

has to wait till the next morning to walk to the usual place of purchase. Also, one’s place of

residence might probably not even have a single prepay vendor that one can even purchase prepay

unit and that, the consumer has to walk certain degree of distance or to a nearby area before finding

at least one vendor to do a simple purchasing of prepay unit which is very bad.

Moreover, when one moves from its original place of stay to a new residence where you have

become a complete stranger to this new area, that also becomes a challenge and finally, when the

system goes down. This generate a whole lot of chaos at various purchasing points. Consumers in

dying need of power for their daily activities will have to queue for hours, at times days when the

system is down completely. Very problematic.

In today’s age of fast growing technology, these challenges should be a thing of the past. The use

of smartphones by Ghanaians has become very prominent and has increased tremendously over

the years and it is very evident in the lifestyle of people.

PROBLEM STATEMENT

Consumers pay higher utility bills for lower income and utility companies also losing a lot of

revenue as a result of illegal means of acquiring electricity.

When the post-paid meters where in session, electricity bills was issued door to door with huge

sum of amounts on them. Which is quite frustrating and disturbing. Some consumers don’t use

much appliances to consume more electric power and yet pay so much usage fee every month.

And if consumers default payments for a couple of times the ECG will be forced to disconnect

your line and the consumer will end up losing if he/she is running a business which demands the

usage of electricity.

Due to the situation above some consumers are also forced to illegally connect when

disconnected, some also adjust the meters in such a way that the bill will be less. When this

situations happen the company also make loses.

AIMS

The aim of this project is to develop mobile based application to help with the purchase of
electricity prepaid units.

OBJECTIVES

The objectives of this project include:

 To examine the development of e-prepaid purchasing and payment system in Ghana.
 To establish a system that will make purchasing of electricity power prepaid more
convenient, smart and easy.
 To explore the structure of electronic payment in Ghana and identify the benefits of e-
payment to the ECG industry in Ghana.
RESEARCH QUESTIONS

 What action should E.C.G must take to ensure easy access in purchasing prepaid units?

 What is the most significant effect of the Mobile Application for prepaid purchasing

system?

 What are the main factors predicting whether long queuing in purchasing prepaid units

will deter customers?

 How should Electricity Company of Ghana should address this pertinent issues?

SIGNIFICANCE

This project when completed would be beneficial to the following:

 Users will conveniently purchase electricity prepaid unit on their smartphones.

 Users will get prompted when they purchase a prepaid unit via the medium.

 Users can as well lodge complains via the system directly to Electricity Company of

Ghana (E.C.G) on issues directly related to E.C.G like faulty meters, transmitters, poles,

electrical wires, light out etc. And also provide users with better services.

 METHODOLOGY

 Agile software development is a conceptual approach to software development under

which requirements and solutions evolve through the collaborative effort of self-organizing

and cross-functional teams and their customer(s)/end user.

 The reason of this developmental model being that, it helps us understand the user

requirement. Also, it leads to continues usability of the product since it was designed and

developed based on the feedback took from the users

LIMITATIONS

 The system can be accessed by only android users.

EXPECTED RESULTS

An android Electricity Prepaid Purchasing System

PROJECT SCHEDULE

The

Semester One (3 months)

Understanding the development of web based android application, developing prototypes and
interfaces (Front end)

Semester Two (3 months)

Testing and complete implementation system and project report.

RESOURCES

The following are the resources needed to make the project a whole;

Physical & Personal Resource

Research instruments, knowledge in Java, Database and UI design. Some amount of cash to
afford data and other expenses.

The following are some technical resources we will need to complete the project;

 Payment gateway

o A payment gateway is a service that receives the online payment request from

your application and directs it to the payment processor.

 Payment processor
 o A payment processor is a service that validates the purchaser’s details and checks

if they have sufficient funds in their account to cover the payment. If the customer

has sufficient funds, the transaction is authorized, and the funds are transferred

from the customer’s account. The status of the transaction is transmitted back to

the payment gateway which then sends a status message to your application.

 Payment provider

o A payment provider (or payment service provider) is the company that operates

the payment gateway or payment processor services. In some cases, the payment

gateway and payment processor are combined into a single service known by

either name.

 Payment service or payment system

o Where a payment provider offers multiple types of payment gateways – with

different features and pricing – each type is referred to as a payment service or

payment system. For example, Mobile Money (All networks) is a payment service

provider that offers a number of payment services. Other third party payment

services will be considered.

 Merchant account

o A merchant account is another important term to understand. When an transaction

is successfully completed, the funds are transferred from the purchaser’s account

to your merchant account, a special kind of account used exclusively to hold

funds received from credit and debit card transactions. To accept payments, you

usually need to set up a merchant account with your payment provider. Funds
 accumulating in your merchant account are transferred to your organization’s

bank account on a regular basis.

APPLICATION AREAS OF ELECTRICITY PREPAID PURCHASING SYSTEM.

The system is usable by all legible Ghanaians to purchase prepaid unit. Legible here means those

currently using the prepaid meter.

HOW THE PREPAID PURCHASING SYSTEM WORKS

At the comfort of your home users can top-up their prepaid units through the android application.

All they need to do is launch the app, enter your prepaid meter number then specify the amount

you want to buy then easily make payment with any of the telecommunication networks or third

payment system like ExpressPay and the rest.

BUDGET

Category Requested Funds Outside Contribution Project Total

Personnel:
Consultant 1 ¢300 ¢250 ¢600
Consultant 2 ¢300 ¢250

Equipment:
RAM (8gb) * 2 ¢300 ¢150 ¢300

Resources:
Payment Gateway ¢4,900 (1 month) ¢3,000 ¢4,900

Transportation ¢2,000 (6 months) ¢1,000 ¢2,000

Stationery ¢300 ¢300

Total ¢4,650 ¢8,100

Shortfall ¢3,450

Budget Note

Consultant: These are people who we are going to work with through out this project to aid us
with areas we encounter challenges.

RAM: The RAM here is to upgrade our current computers to enable quick and convenient
programming since the IDE carry a lot of memory load.

Shortfall: The shortfall here is the remaining amount of money needed to finance the project. We
currently have outside contributions of ¢4,650.00. We are looking forward in submitting our
proposal to other organizations for financial assistance.
REFERENCE LIST:

[1] B. Veronik, “Smart Cards in Payphones: The Wireless Dimension,” Int’l. Telecom., May
1998, http://www.telecommagazine.com/issues/199805/tci/veronik.html
[2] A. Arteta, “Prepaid Billing Technologies - Which One is for You?,” Billing World, Feb.
1998, pp. 54–61.
[3] F. Slavick, “Counting Down Prepaid Services,” Billing World, Sept. 1998, pp. 44–50.
[4] J. Wei, “The Prepaid Service of Telecommunications - UN and Singaporeas an Example,”
Taiwan Commun. Mag., Aug. 1998, pp. 47–50.
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