The National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) has recently confirmed that NSFAS allowance payments have been made to students for August 2023. The scheme paid out a total of over R400 million to more than 100 000 TVET college students.
A statement released read:
The National Student Financial Aids Scheme (NSFAS) has today, 25 August 2023, made a payment of R405 million to 108 534 beneficiaries studying at Technical And Vocational Education and Training (TVET) college countrywide for the month of September.
The payments were made through the NSFAS direct payment system which was introduced to TVET colleges in November last year. The bursary scheme has so far disbursed a total R3.1 billion in NSFAS allowances to 206 539 TVET college students since the start of the current academic year.
Issues With The Direct Payment System
Despite ongoing issues with the scheme’s newly introduced direct payment system, NSFAS maintains that they continue to make allowance payments in accordance with the available registration data.
Since the introduction of the new allowance payment system, students have complained about being charged exorbitant bank fees to access their funds in addition to several other challenges with accessing their allowances.
Implications Of The NSFAS Direct Payment Scandal
This has consequently led to NSFAS CEO, Andile Nongogo being placed on special leave and probed following maladministration allegations relating to the awarding of contracts to the service providers responsible for the bursary scheme's direct payment system.
Moreover, TVET college students are encouraged to register and onboard themselves on to the direct payment system, with the scheme adding that it is crucial to ensure that all NSFAS recipients are on boarded to avoid any complications in receiving their funding.
