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The National Student Financial Aid Scheme (Nsfas) administrator, Freeman Nomvalo, has called for support to make the scheme efficient as it tries to deal with late allowance payments, student accommodation issues and transparency.
“There are families that would not be where they are today had it not been for Nsfas. There are millions of other families that still need Nsfas to assist them. It is for that reason that all of the work that we are doing and everything we are focusing on should seek to make sure that Nsfas works and works well,” the administrator said on Tuesday afternoon.
He was addressing the media about the developments at the scheme since his appointment in April 2024, where he called on all stakeholders to work and support the scheme.
The administrator said the organisation needs to be organised and realigned to deliver on its mandates.
In terms of accessibility, the administrator said most stakeholders respond well when they have someone to talk to and people are made available to address their issues.
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Nomvalo said Nsfas needs a project that will make it more accessible and responsive.
As a result, a roadshow will start in KwaZulu-Natal on Wednesday to engage with stakeholders about all their issues, including student accommodation.
The administrator said the payment process for student accommodation is costly and frustrating.
“We need to streamline that and make sure that it is cost-effective, efficient, and ensures that students and accommodation providers receive their money on time,” Nomvalo said, adding that that’s the main issue for accommodation providers.
Nomvalo described the issues with accommodation providers as “painful”. He said the mission is to not only catch up on outstanding payments but to ensure there are engagements with stakeholders.
He added that a task team will look into all accommodation payments, as some late payments have led to difficulties for students.
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The administrator said since his appointment, a government framework has been put together, and committees have been set up to ensure sensible decisions are made.
Some of the issues that TVET college students faced included students not receiving their allowances or accommodation money being sent directly to students. This was costly for Nsfas and created many problems for the scheme.
“We had to respond to that, and therefore we decided to use a direct payment mechanism using our direct banker… A transaction was costing us at least R22 (costing Nsfas R12 and a student R10); we now make that transfer at less than R1,” Nomvalo said.
He said this has created stability in that there are fewer complaints from students receiving their allowances late.
“This is an important fact because we can know who we are paying and whether the student exists.”
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Nomvalo said the scheme is now paying through universities, which ensures that all students receive their allowances.
The administrator thanked the universities for their cooperation, and Nsfas is aiming for all payments to be paid directly to beneficiaries.
“Our mission towards that end goal has been temporarily stopped by the interdict we lost on 12 July and processes are underway to reverse that decision,” he said.
The Western Cape High Court ruled over its bid to cancel the direct payment contract by eZaga Holdings, one of four companies contracted to pay student beneficiaries on behalf of Nsfas.
When the administration started, there were about 88 000 appeals that needed to be dealt with, and now there are less than 4 000 left.
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“There has been a lot of progress made in order to alleviate the plight of students,” he said.
He added that the results of the appeals will be communicated to students before the end of August.
To enhance transparency, Nsfas is setting up registers to highlight wasteful and fruitless expenditure and register contracts.
“This is to make sure that we keep track of all of those things, that we respond to them in terms of how the legislation wishes us to respond to them by addressing them, improving internal controls, and if there is any recovery of money needed to be made, that we follow up on them,” Nomvalo said.
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To address backlogs, Nsfas has increased capacity by bringing in the services of KPMG and BDO to assist in the close-out report, annual financial statement, and student accommodation issues.
“The intention is to be able to deal with the backlog but, at the same time, design processes and systems for the future,” he said.
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