UNI-DISC: A Digital Loyalty Card Management System

In Equatorial Guinea, where students constitute over 50% of the population, limited access to targeted commercial discount programs exacerbates financial burdens amidst rising inflation. This study presents the design, development, and implementation of UNI-DISC, a comprehensive loyalty card management system developed to address this gap. The system facilitates collaboration between educational institutions, students, and local businesses to provide exclusive discounts on essential goods and services without minimum purchase requirements. Adopting an incremental software development lifecycle and Extreme Programming (XP) methodology, the project utilized Unified Modeling Language (UML) for requirements specification and system design. The technical architecture employs Java with Spring Boot for the backend RESTful API, TypeScript with Angular for the frontend single-page application, and MySQL as the relational database management system. Security implementations include JWT-based authentication, Spring Security framework, and BCrypt password encryption. The resulting desktop application enables administrators to manage student cards, educational institutions, and financial transactions while providing financial officers with revenue tracking capabilities. The system successfully meets functional requirements including user authentication, card lifecycle management, institution administration, and financial reporting. This initiative represents a novel approach to student support in Equatorial Guinea's unique socioeconomic context, offering scalable, secure, and maintainable technology infrastructure that benefits both students and small-to-medium enterprises. Future enhancements should focus on integrating mobile applications, advanced financial analytics, and broader commercial partnerships to maximize socioeconomic impact.