The National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) has once again issued a statement to the media and public, this time around allowances and its budget.
This, according to the organisation, is to combat inaccuracies in the news. This is a the same reason why NSFAS issued a statement about Sibongile Mani, the “NSFAS Millionaire” who was recently sentenced to five years in prison.
It seems NSFAS usually speaks up when it comes to appearing in the news.
“The National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) has become aware of several media reports regarding the receipt of its funding allocation from the National Treasury. This follows an article published over the weekend in the media. There has been an increase in media interest regarding the matter, however, these media reports have since been superseded by events,” the announcement reads.
It’s unclear which article is being referenced here, but it may be this one from City Press published on 3rd April, which was this weekend.
“NSFAS can confirm that it has since received the first tranche of its budgetary allocation for the first quarter of the financial year. The Scheme will thus be able to start processing payments to institutions and paying student allowances from Friday, April 08, 2022.
An official communication has been sent to all institutions on the allowance payment process. The institutions that have complied with the 2022 approved NSFAS Eligibility Criteria and Conditions for Financial Aid will receive payment from NSFAS,” the announcement continues.
Whenever NSFAS makes an announcement we see many questions about when allowances will be issued from students, so this confirmation of an exact date is very welcomed.
Despite this we see many similar comments on places like Twitter from students and their support networks about problems around funding, especially how long the process will take after Friday.
“The Communique from NSFAS further requests institutions to abide by the funding rules set out in the NSFAS Eligibility Criteria and Conditions for Financial Aid, when disbursing funding to students,” the scheme concludes.
