NSFAS says making progress with paying funds

The National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) says it’s making progress with the disbursement of funds to students at Universities and TVET Colleges.

The Scheme was briefing the Portfolio Committee on Higher Education on its plans to deal with the late payment for private accommodation for students and progress in resolving appeals.

The Committee kicked off its work for the 7th democratic Parliament by conducting an oversight visit at the NSFAS offices.

It also received the first progress report since the Scheme was placed under administration in April this year. This followed delays in the disbursement of funds and backlogs in application appeals.

“A lot of expectation on the part of the students. Students expect that if they qualify for NSFAS they are able to, I mean for students funding that they are paid on time, their allowances, their accommodation, the tuition fee,” says Buti Manamela, Deputy Minister of Higher Education.

The Scheme says the direct payment mechanism that has been implemented, is yielding positive results. It is lowering costs from R22 to R1 per transaction, while there have been no queries regarding non-payment from TVET Colleges since May.

“We not where we ought to be. We still have challenges to resolve. We still have legacy issues that are a pain to students, a pain to society. We are committed to resolving them as we go on with time. It is unacceptable for students to suffer this long,” says Freeman Nomvalo, NSFAS administrator.

He says the biggest challenge is making sure that payments are done on time for students’ accommodation.

“The burning issue that we still have is that we still need to pay on time for instance as in August, we were supposed to pay on the 31st of July, but we couldn’t. We ended up paying beginning of August. When we pay that late debit orders bounce, credit scores get affected.”

The Scheme says applications for the 2025 academic year will open on the 1st of September and close on the 30th of November this year.