ABSTRACT

On August 9, 2001, the official rollout date of GSM services to the Nigerian citizens dawned a new era of technological development across the nation. This present development has spurred vast frontiers of opportunities which are still been explored and experimented upon. Amongst which, lies a new platform for business transactions termed "Mobile Commerce or M-Commerce". This trend of e-commerce, M-commerce, is slowly but surely been integrated into the Nigerian society as evidential in banks providing mobile banking services; thus this research project explores the possibility of implementing this technological development in a public service provider, ABC Transporters precisely, as an innovation to enhance their service delivery and also stand as a unique source of revenue generation. In chapter one, the author introduces the concept of transportation with special reference to Public Transportation on a general note, then specifying it to the Nigerian context. He further provides the reader with the background information of the case study organization, ABC Transpoters, their services, operations, policies etc. The background of the problem was appropriately described accompanied by a precise statement of the problem at hand also, the scope, limitations and definition of uncommon terminologies followed respectively. Chapter two, the literature review, reveals the evolution of the GSM phenomenon and its subsequent implementation in Nigeria; it goes further to discuss extensively the concept of Mobile Commerce under several sub-headings. Chapter three specifies the techniques and methodologies used in the accomplishment of this project work, while chapter four provides a detailed and fully illustrated analysis of the existing advanced reservation system; proposes the mobile reservation system and provides a comparative analysis of the both systems. Chapter five deals with the design and specifications of the new system. It elaborates on the structure, inputs and outputs, mode of processing and operations with their appropriate supporting diagrams. Chapter six discusses the methods of implementation and proposed maintenance of this system. The research project comes to completion in chapter seven with various suggestions and recommendations by the author and finally his concluding remarks and bibliography.