These changes, naturally, have affected the definition of electronic payments, which is evolving depending on the needs of each period. In its most general form, the term electronic payment includes any payment to businesses, bank or public services from citizens or businesses, which are executed through a telecommunications or electronic networks using modern technology. It is obvious that based on this definition, the electronic payments that will be the objects of present result, are the payment that are executed by the payer himself, whether the latter is a consumer or a business, without the intervention of the another natural person. Furthermore, the payment is made from distance, without the physical presence of the payer and naturally it does not include cash. By providing such definition for the electronic payment system, researcher include the transfer of information concerning the accounts of the parties involved in the e-commerce transactions, as well as the technological means of distribution channels through which the transactions is executed (Anik & Pathan ,2002).
Electronic payment (E-payment) is a subset of an e-commerce transaction to include electronic payment for buying and selling goods or services offered through the Internet. There are many forms of e-payment ranging from cards, Internet, mobile payment, financial service kiosks, biometric payments, electronic payments networks etc. and as technology develops, the range of devices and processes to transact electronically continues to increases while the percentage of cash and cheque transactions continue to decrease (Accenture, 2003).
In the Nigerian context, e-payment is effecting payments from one end to another end through the medium of the computer without manual intervention beyond inputting the payment data; it is the ability to pay the suppliers, vendors and staff salaries electronically at the touch of a computer button.