NSFAS Allowances Payments 2023

NSFAS Allowances Payments 2023

• Student Financial Aid Scheme provides funding to qualifying students that are registered to study at TVET colleges and public universities in South Africa.
• The bursary scheme has now released a statement with an update on student allowances.

(NSFAS) has recently confirmed that student allowances for university students have been paid for the month of September 2023. The financial aid scheme said in a statement on Thursday that it will be paying NSFAS allowances to students through its direct payment system on Friday, 01 September 2023.

• This comes after several university students raised concerns that NSFAS failed to pay them their allowances on Thursday.

NSFAS explained:

• • The scheme had a technical glitch resulting in non-payment of allowances today; however, this has been fixed and NSFAS will affect payment by midnight 31 August 2023 for the amount to reflect in the beneficiaries account by 12h00 01 September 2023.
• Furthermore, NSFAS apologised to students, saying it completely understood “the inconvenience this delay will cause our beneficiaries”.

We would like to convey our heartfelt apologies for this unfortunate moment and completely understand the inconvenience this delay will cause our beneficiaries. We will always try our best ensure that this never occurs going forward.

NSFAS Direct Payment

• Over the past few months, the new NSFAS direct payment system has received backlash from students and stakeholders alike.
• The system solution was introduced at universities in June 2023. NSFAS partnered with four fintech companies to bring the new payment solution to students.
• These companies include Tenet Technology, Coinvest Africa, Ezaga Holdings and Norraco Corporation.
• However, since its implementation there have already been a number of complaints about the system, including students not receiving their funds, exorbitant bank charges, glitches, and unauthorised access resulting in loss of funds.
• In addition, some students have already expressed frustration noting that the onboarding process has been everything but ‘seamless’, with some questioning communication around the new system and why it was introduced at universities in the middle of the academic year.

Responding to concerns, NSFAS board chair Ernest Khosa acknowledged that, as with any introduction of new systems, there have been some teething issues and genuine cases of students who have not been able to access their allowances via the new solution.

As previously indicated, due to the teething issues experienced with the introduction of the system, NSFAS resolved to have continuous engagements with sector stakeholders to tackle these issues.

They affirmed that NSFAS remains committed to ensuring that all beneficiaries are onboarded onto the new system and get to enjoy all the value-added services associated with the NSFAS Bank Account well into the 2024 academic year.