Assessing Impact of Online Payment Systems Usage During COVID-19 Pandemic

The main objective of this study is to assess online payment systems usage in Ghana during the COVID-19 pandemic using graduate students at a public university as a case study. The study used a qualitative research method by way of interviews to collect data from 25 graduate students sampled purposively and used thematic analysis in analyzing the data. The results indicate that the COVID-19 pandemic influenced students to use online payment systems a lot due to movement restrictions and the risk of getting infected with the virus. Also, it was revealed that the system quality, security quality, and service quality of the online payment platforms influenced their usage. Again, the analysis revealed that the use of online payment platforms comes with a lot of challenges including poor network connectivity issues, an increasing rate of fraudsters, and agents having limited cash at the point of transaction. Implications are also discussed.