To make the payment of bursary allowances more convenient for tertiary students, the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) recently introduced the NSFAS Mastercard. During that period, the bursary scheme also clarified that it would function in a similar way to a normal bank card.
However, since the card is provided by NSFAS, this also raises the question of whether students will incur additional bank charges while using the card for their day-to-day transactions.
Fortunately for NSFAS-funded students, the card will not include bank charges when students use the bank card for cash withdrawals or making purchases.
The introduction of the NSFAS Mastercard forms part of a collaborative partnership between Tenet Technology and the National Student Financial Aid Scheme to enable tertiary students to now receive their monthly allowance using the NSFAS Mastercard.
The bursary scheme’s decision came months after complaints surfaced regarding delays in processing allowances for August. Nsfas also shared that student allowances for August 2022 are currently being processed.
Additionally, according to NSFAS, students should be aware that not all of them will receive the card at once and that, for the time being, they must wait for an SMS informing them that their allowances will be paid through the NSFAS MasterCard before registering or activating it.
