UTILISATION OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE-ASSISTED E-PAYMENT SYSTEM AND STUDENTS' STRESS CONTROL IN UNIVERSITIES IN OGUN STATE, NIGERIA

The integration of electronic payment system into higher education institutions was with the intention to revolutionize traditional payment methods faced with myriads of problems. However, with the advent of electronic payment system policy in Nigeria, issues that bother on security, privacy, crime and computerization are retarding societal acceptance, and widespread implementation of digital financial solutions. A critical issue is student’s stress arising from long queue, wait times due to network issues or difficulty in retrieving lost receipts. This study examined the utilisation of AI-assisted electronic payment system and students’ stress control in Ogun State Owned Universities. The descriptive survey research design was adopted. The population comprised 69,831 undergraduate students of two state-owned universities in Ogun State, Nigeria. A sample size of 6,983 undergraduates was selected from faculties and colleges in the two institutions using a stratified random sampling technique. A researcher-developed instrument titled: AI-Assisted Electronic Payment System and Students’ Stress Control Rating Scale with reliability coefficient of 0.71 was used for data collection. The research questions were analysed using descriptive statistics of mean and standard deviation while the null hypothesis was tested using Pearson’s Product-Moment Correlation (PPMC) at .05 level of significance. Findings showed that there were moderate levels of utilisation (Mean = 0.85), and stress (Mean = 0.74) experienced by undergraduates in utilisation of AI-assisted electronic payment system in universities. Finding also revealed a significant positive relationship between utilisation of AI-assisted e-payment system and stress control among undergraduates (r = 0.215, p < .05). The study recommends that universities’ Information and Communication Technology Centres should engage tech-experts in redevelopment and re-designing of existing e-payment platforms with Artificial Intelligence to enable a stress free website in receiving all forms of student fees.