Higher Education, Science and Innovation Minister Blade Nzimande has urged higher learning institutions not to deny National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) funded students with outstanding payments registration for the current academic year.
Nzimande briefed the media on the state of readiness for the 2024 academic year, response to the 2023 Matric results, and National Student Financial Aid Scheme on Tuesday.
“I call on NSFAS, working together with institutions, to ensure that they speedily resolve all the outstanding payments. I am urging institutions not to deny NSFAS-funded students with outstanding payments to register for the current academic year,” he said.
Nzimande said as part of a smooth beginning to the 2024 academic year, NSFAS would process up to R4.2-billion as an upfront payment to all government colleges and universities prior to the finalisation of applications and registrations.
He added that out of its financial reserves, the scheme would pay R1-billion to colleges and R3.2-billion to universities, allowing them to register students receiving financial aid.
Nzimande said that the outstanding payments were due to the reconciliation between NSFAS and higher learning institutions, predominately because of registration data changes.
“I have noted with concern that the main reason for outstanding payments was due to reconciliations that Nsfas has been engaged with institutions predominately because of registration data changes,” he said.
“Nsfas needs to be more strict in 2024 in how it manages the registration adjustment process, and institutions should submit the registration information accurately and timeously upon first submission.”
To date, Nsfas has received 1,5 million applications as of 21 January 2024. The scheme has provisionally funded 657 703 applications, mainly SASSA recipients.
“We call upon all students to please apply on time, fill out all the forms, and sign the consent forms in order to ensure that you have applied,” Nzimande said.
He said the scheme anticipated additional applications before the close of the 2024 application, on January 31.