Includes references(52-60 p.)

Includes appendix(61-62 p.)

' ABSTRACT From the time when the Internet and the World Wide Web was invented, e-commerce changed from an unimportant thought into a reality. E-commerce refers to the exchanging of products through the Web and other media or devices. Customers make use of e-commerce systems because of convenience when shopping online. In e-commerce, lack of privacy and security is an essential subject that has been prompting to unfavorable outcomes on its usage. The aim of the study is to use quantitative design techniques to evaluate how perceived trust, perceived risk and security awareness affect user participation in e-commerce. data collected from 229 valid respondents was analyzed using SPSS and representing using frequency tables. Correlation and regression v test were carried out to analyse the relastionship between the independent variables; pğerceived trust, perceived risk and security awareness, and the dependant variable being user participation in e-commerce. A conclusion was drawen from the finding that there is a positive significant relationship between perceived trust and user participation, there is also a positive significant relationship between security awareness and user participation. However., there is a negative significant relationship between perceived risk and user participation , hence affecting the number of times a participant majes online purchases. Keywords: E-ccommerce, e-commers sytems, interenet, privacy, security.'