The National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) announced on Monday that it is cutting ties with service providers that have allegedly been irregularly appointed.
This comes after the Werkmans Attorney report recommended that the student fund scheme cut off relationships with Ezaga Holdings, Coinvest Africa, Norraco Corporation, and Tenet Technologies, which had been appointed to administer direct payment services to students.
NSFAS administrator Freeman Nomvalo said they had collaborated with the Special Investigating Unit on the matter and emphasised that the process to cancel agreements has commenced.
“You will recall in the Werkmans report that the appointment was irregular, and therefore I can report right now that we are implementing the recommendations of the Werkmans report,” said Nomvalo.
“We are working on improving the procurement processes and the four service providers that were appointed as direct payment providers; we have initiated the process to cancel those agreements; we filed the papers this past Friday on the 24th of May,” he added.
New payment method
NSFAS has therefore started a new student payment migration.
Nomvalo said they were at the final stages of developing new student payment methods with TVET (Technical Vocational Education and Training) colleges and confirmed that at least 211 591 students had their bank accounts approved, while 7 160 bank accounts failed verification, and urged them to reapply with their own bank accounts.
“We are finalising the final list of NSFAS 2024 beneficiaries, including those that are affected by the appeal’s process,” said Nomvalo.
“We are reviewing our ITC system to improve our turnaround time and integration into our institutions in this regard.
“NSFAS should not be the reason that hinders the smooth conduct of the education and training system, including the commencement of the academic year.”
Nomvalo said he only hoped to ensure that the dreams and aspirations of people hoping to further their studies would be fulfilled through NSFAS.
