Design of an Online Bursary Payment System for IMT Enugu Students

The management of school fees and bursary payments in Nigerian polytechnics has been characterised by long queues, cash handling risks, receipt mismanagement, and limited payment transparency, all of which undermine institutional revenue management and student welfare. At the Institute of Management and Technology (IMT), Enugu, these challenges persist despite growing adoption of digital payment infrastructure across Nigeria's financial sector. This study designed an online bursary payment system tailored to the administrative and financial workflows of IMT Enugu. The system was developed using a web-based architecture comprising PHP, MySQL, and integrated payment gateway support through the Paystack API, which is widely adopted across Nigerian higher institutions. The platform enabled students to initiate fee payments, generate electronic receipts, and track payment history through a secure student dashboard, while bursary staff accessed a backend module for payment verification and financial reporting. System evaluation through functional and security testing confirmed that the platform handled payment transactions accurately, generated tamper-proof receipts, and maintained audit trails suitable for institutional financial accountability. Student feedback from usability trials indicated strong preference for the online platform over the existing manual process. The study concluded that an online bursary system is both technically achievable and operationally beneficial for IMT Enugu, with the potential to reduce revenue leakages and improve the student payment experience significantly.

Keywords: online payment, bursary system, IMT Enugu, Paystack, financial management