Abstract:
The use of smart Android devices in Uganda has greatly increased over a few years due to their
affordability, availability and functionality. Users interact with android devices through
applications, commonly called “apps”, which are either pre-installed by the manufacturer
(System Apps) or are downloaded by the user. Apps can be free, or paid, depending on the
vendor.
Google Play is the premier store for all Android applications, offering a vast amount of apps
for entertainment, utilities, messaging, business, gaming, and other sub-categories. However,
there are other app stores like Mobogenie, Samsung Galaxy Apps, Amazon App Store.
Free apps generally do trivial tasks like messaging, music, video and games. Paid apps do offer
more services, in terms of functionality, for example medical services, and the purchase of
digital content.
These apps are really cheap, they cost in the range of $0.5-$3 for a one-time purchase. However,
the payment methods available on app stores cannot be used by the Android phone owner’s in
Uganda, being a cash driven economy, with an extremely small percentage of users managing
to own a debit/credit card, let alone the fact that even some local banks like Centenary Bank
do not support the use of debit and credit cards.
This project was therefore aimed at developing an Android App Store that use the mobile
money service as a payment system for the purchase of paid apps.
The work is arranged mainly in six chapters, Chapter one includes the introduction of the
Project. Chapter two discusses the literature related to the
system, Chapter three illustrates the methodologies used in coming up with the working
prototype of the system, Chapter four includes system design and analysis, Chapter five
contains the implementation and testing of the system and chapter six contains the sum
mary of the work, discussions and recommendations.
