• NSFAS has opened its portal where accommodation providers can register their properties to be used by the aid scheme to place students.
• Once an accommodation is registered, NSFAS will send experts to make sure the accommodation is suited for students to live in.
• NSFAS has opened the portal coinciding with the concluding matric exams, with thousands of students now looking towards aid in their tertiary education journey.

The National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) has officially opened a portal for accommodation providers to register their properties for NSFAS beneficiaries.

Once signed in, accommodation providers will be able to list their properties on the NSFAS database. They simply have to provide names, locations and images.

NSFAS will then contact these providers and send out a “panel of experts” to accredit and grade the properties to make sure they are suitable for student living.

Both students and interested accommodation providers can register on this portal. Both parties are required to choose an educational institution, like the University of Johannesburg or the University of Pretoria.

After the accreditation process is completed, the registered accommodation will become available for students who are beneficiaries.

If you’re looking to provide a residence for students, now is the time to register with NSFAS. By the fact that you have to choose an educational institution, no doubt proximity to the university or college will be a factor that is graded.

According to some users on Twitter, the portal seems to not be working past the second page as of the time of writing, seemingly minutes after the portal was launched.

Good day, there appears to be a problem going past the second page. We could not proceed past this page after entering personal information. Please assist.

— unitewithlight hope_love (@UnitewithlightL) December 14, 2022

The opening of the portal coincides with the conclusion of the 2022 matric exams. Hundreds of thousands of matriculants will be looking to embark on their journeys into tertiary education, with many seeking bursary opportunities, including NSFAS.

Prospective students could apply for educational financial aid through the scheme from September 2022, but like many other bursary options, there are stringent criteria in place.

These include:

• “You are SASSA grant recipients or
• Your combined household income is not more than R350 000 per year or
• If you are a person living with a disability, your combined household income should not be more than R600 000 per year or
• If you are a student who began their university studies before 2018 and their household income is not more than R122 000 per year.”

NSFAS has also made students aware that scammers are actively pretending to be the aid scheme in order to steal financial information and money.

Applicants be alert of fake online pages posing as NSFAS as it could be scammers trying to collect your personal details. Follow our official pages for factual information.#ItsInYourHands#NSFAS2023 pic.twitter.com/z0RyeCaFDI

— NSFAS (@myNSFAS) December 13, 2022

These scams are very common, and applicants are reminded to never share their personal details with anyone and only use official sites that are connected to organisations.

Avoid interacting with entities like NSFAS through direct messages on chat platforms.