Automated Personal Finance System (Pay App) for College and University Students in Developing Countries. A Case for Egerton University

Abstract

Financial management and budgeting although not seriously taken into consideration as major contributor towards smooth learning for students, is a very crucial element in students’ successful completion of their courses in the universities or colleges. This paper presents a research on the need for the proper finance management an discusses a mobile application, “Pay-App”, which offers an alternative approach to traditional income spending and seeking to make the otherwise idle/unplanned/misused income more productive by adding useful functionalities that are unique and bespoke to the users. The paper takes a comprehensive look into the revolution of payment and money transfer schemes specifically the use of modern mobile payment platforms offered by the various available mobile and internet service providers. A small survey on where students’ income come from, how spent, and the need for a students’ financial system. The proposed application uses the concept of accounts (cash boxes) to represent each budget item whereby an income that a person receives is distributed to the various accounts using prescribed formulae. The formulae consider priorities of a budget item, amounts required, period to achieve a target among other parameters. In order to justify the need for such a system in the community (University environment was chosen as a sampling environment), the researchers distributed questionnaires to a target population and observations made. This was to help in finding out if such system would be practical and useful to various individuals earning an income (regularly or irregularly) and fall into various income brackets. After conducting the research, it was observed that a majority of the people preferred to have an automated system of redistributing money into their various budget target entities in an organized and prioritized fashion. The proposed system is unique in its ability to tie its users to a well-managed financial discipline that allows them to avoid reckless spending habits which lead to a common state of financial depression. University environment was chosen as students have a tendency of overspending during the first days of the semester and unable to control any other income they generate within the semester. In the absence of such a financial system, students tend to think that the money they have is a lot and tempts them to experiment with harmful activities like drugs, buying expensive gadgets, and getting involved with other undesired characters. Such financial spending could have been avoided altogether, had a proper cash-management mechanism been adopted. This also would help in training the students in proper money managements and evade various dangerous activities. The same applies to communities with low and irregular income like the “jua kali” sector and other small and medium entrepreneurs (SMEs). When these people gets a pay, they also tend to feel that the money is much and enter celebration mood that Leeds to misuse of money, inability to take care of their families and in some cases lead to poor health of the individuals. The paper therefore discusses, training of students and low income earners on spending (social) and an innovation in computer application (technical) that helping people become wise spenders.