- eZaga, one of NSFAS’ four fintech partners, says that it has successfully onboarded almost all of the student beneficiaries in its scope.
- That means there are still a few thousand students that have yet to join the eZaga bank accounts.
- The company explains that barriers like a lack of data, technology and a rigorous document submission process have hindered onboarding efforts.
One of the four fintech providers appointed by NSFAS, eZaga has released an update on the state of its direct payment system. It says that it has now onboarded 98.1 percent of students on its platform.
eZaga provides payment and banking technology to hundreds of thousands of students who are NSFAS beneficiaries from six universities in South Africa, including Durban University of Technology, Vaal University of Technology, Tshwane University of Technology, University of Limpopo, University of Zululand and the University of the Free State.
The company has asked us not to publish the exact number of students in its scope, explaining that these “change all the time as students register.”
It, the three other fintech providers and NSFAS itself came under fire in the last few months for the launch of the NSFAS direct payment system and student bank accounts. A system that a Parliamentary Higher Education committee called “an embarrassment.”
NSFAS, which handles billions of taxpayer Rands for the benefit of disadvantaged students, has raised the ire of university students, staff at universities, government officials, political parties and legal bodies across the country for its rollout of the new system.
Thousands of students have yet to join eZaga
eZaga says that “teething problems” in the initial stages of the launch and what it calls “an aggressive misinformation campaign” were issues that hampered its onboarding efforts. Now, three months into the wider rollout of the NSFAS direct payment system there is still 1.9 percent of its students that are yet to onboard in the payment system.
This equates to just over 2 000 students across the six universities.
The fintech told Hypertext about a few of the barriers it is dealing with in order to onboard the remaining students, including a ‘rigorous’ FICA and Know Your Customer (KYC) document submission process required by the SA Reserve Bank in order to activate the eZaga bank accounts.
“The remaining students haven’t submitted all their forms, so cannot be activated yet. eZaga is working with them to successfully onboard them,” a representative told us on behalf of the fintech.
Additional challenges eZaga claims include a lack of data or smartphones required to fulfil the online registration process and students supplying incorrect contact information.
“While the past three months since onboarding the universities have posed some challenges, they have been managed with resilience and a steadfast commitment to the objectives set out for us by NSFAS,” enthused Saud Ally, CEO of eZaga.
“Thanks to constructive feedback from students and stakeholders, we have been able to implement changes to the programme such as how the fees are structured. Through these adjustments, we prioritised student needs while ensuring that we consistently deliver a quality service,” he adds.
Onboarding help
The fintech has launched a communication strategy on social media, email, SMS and WhatsApp aiming to inform students about how to onboard its system.
It has also reportedly set up a dedicated call centre that offers 24/7 support for students who are struggling. The company has also employed over 30 graduates to serve as intermediaries for eZaga on university campuses.
NSFAS has yet to announce any changes to the direct payment system, or how it hopes to begin righting some of the issues Parliament had with the scheme, including a vast number of unanswered appeals from confused students, especially this late in the year.
