• A small, seemingly inconsequential glitch on the NSFAS Student Portal has stopped some students from receiving their monthly payments.
• The glitch stops students from updating their payment details, meaning new payments never reach them.
• Many students say they are affected by the glitch and say they have not received any help from NSFAS.

NSFAS (National Student Financial Aid Scheme) beneficiaries say a simple issue of updating personal information via the NSFAS Student Portal, the only means to register and access crucial information from the government bursary scheme, has affected not only their studies but their entire livelihoods.

Worst still, they say that communications with NSFAS to fix this seemingly simple issue with the website have fallen on deaf ears with no meaningful responses to queries for more than five months since the problem began.

One beneficiary reached out to Hypertext to tell us that since November 2024, they have not been able to change their payment details on the NSFAS Student Portal, meaning that they are unable to receive their stipends.

The problem is also affecting other students and if the inability to make changes to payment details is website-wide, it means any NSFAS beneficiary that requires changes to such details will essentially be unable to access their stipends.

Students are told the same thing when attempting to change their payment details on the system. “The account holder’s details have been updated in the system, please edit and save.” However, the Edit button is greyed out and inaccessible, meaning no changes can be made.

This issue, according to one beneficiary, has persisted since November 2024, which coincides with the revamp NSFAS launched for the student portal to begin taking in applications for the 2025 academic year.

The new portal opened at the end of September 2024. We have also seen that many different beneficiaries have stalled by this seemingly simple issue of not being able to change their payment details.

Official NSFAS social media is also full of beneficiaries claiming that they are unable to change their payment details on the Student Portal.

“Since I am unable to update my banking details, I cannot receive my monthly NSFAS allowance. This has caused financial strain as I rely on these funds for essential expenses like rent, food, and transport,” a NSFAS beneficiary told us.

“It seems that this issue started when NSFAS introduced the new online portal. Many students have reported similar problems with updating their banking details, and the inability to edit information has prevented them from accessing their funds.”

He says that many, including himself, have been waiting for months for the scheme to solve the seemingly small problem. “But we are not receiving any official updates or assistance. We have tried contacting them multiple times through different channels, but we do not receive responses.”

Hypertext has also struggled in the past to get in contact with NSFAS, despite our extensive coverage. We usually have to leap through hoops just to get an email reply and often have to wait months upon months for auto-generated messages.

“My current situation with NSFAS is uncertain because I am unable to receive my allowance due to the greyed-out “Edit” button on the portal. In my opinion, the new student portal is poorly managed and lacks effective support for students. The inability to update crucial banking details is a serious issue, and the lack of communication from NSFAS only makes things worse. Many students are struggling financially due to this, and we urgently need a solution,” they tell us.

Since Universities and TVET Colleges are now paying students directly, and TVET Colleges directly to student bank accounts, beneficiaries are urged to contact their institutions and not NSFAS in efforts to perhaps have their payment details changed there instead of on the Student Portal.

The other side to this coin is that NSFAS may be making payments to bank accounts that some students have stopped using or belong to other people, simply because it is not possible to update banking details on the website.

Officially, NSFAS says that it is on the up-trend after hiring a new acting CEO and a board of directors. The scheme recently finalised its payment dates for 2025.