Pressure grows on NSFAS to decentralise; CEO promises phased roll-out at campuses

The National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) is paying more than R2.5-million a month to rent the five floors in Cape Town’s upmarket Halyard building that house its offices.

Now, universities, students and members of the Portfolio Committee on Higher Education have called for NSFAS to establish branches at higher education institutions to streamline the student funding process.

Read more: NSFAS battles backlogs, staff and tech woes as MPs criticise R2m rent for swish Cape Town offices.

University of the Western Cape’s (UWC’s) spokesperson, Gasant Abarder, said, “UWC is in support of the prospect of having direct access to NSFAS via a central campus operational office and does foresee that this could be beneficial to avoid potential time delays due to logistical and other factors, where the NSFAS operational staff stationed at campuses are well equipped and have access to the necessary information to provide this support.”

University of Pretoria’s (UP’s) spokesperson, Rikus Delport, said, “The absence of a local NSFAS office contributes significantly to the financial clearance delays, eg, delayed application processing, appeals consideration, migration from one year to the next, transferring students from one institution to another, and confirmation of funding statuses.

[A] regional office will … be able to manage these individual queries efficiently, eliminating the middleman [UP].”

He said having an NSFAS office on campus would ensure “shorter turnaround time for processing applications and appeals to determine the funding statuses, [and] the timely publishing of allowance amounts.”

Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) spokesperson Lauren Kansley said that “by having NSFAS offices on campus, it would alleviate a lot of tension with regard to students being able to escalate queries directly with them.

“Our staff members are always empathetic to some of the challenges faced by students with regard to late disbursements, and in the past, CPUT has paid the shortfall in the beginning of the year to ease student anxiety.”

University of Johannesburg  (UJ) spokesperson Herman Esterhuizen said, “We are currently engaging with NSFAS on the proposed decentralisation plan. We anticipate concluding the process by the end of November.”

The University of Cape Town’s (UCT’s) spokesperson, Elijah Moholola, said the institution “notes the ongoing engagements with regard to NSFAS and its challenges. UCT will engage through USAf [Universities South Africa] and other appropriate stakeholder platforms to provide its input.”

Support from students

Students that Daily Maverick interviewed overwhelmingly support the decentralisation of NSFAS, expressing frustration with the current online and telephonic system, which often requires spending money on data just to check for updates.

Luzuko Kosi, a first-year engineering student at CPUT, said, “I have experienced issues with NSFAS because my application was delayed, yet I submitted all [the necessary] documents.

“Having an NSFAS office on campus will help us students receive help quickly. You can get in, get the necessary assistance, and solve issues on the spot instead of waiting for weeks or even months.”

Amahle Jakavu, a final-year Bachelor of Education student at Walter Sisulu University (WSU), said the lack of an NSFAS office “affects us because we always have problems, and they cannot be solved because we have to call NSFAS, and they usually do not take our calls.

“I had issues around 2023; I nearly lost my funding because every time I called the landline, I could not get hold of them.”

A fourth-year student at Tshwane University of Technology (TUT), who wished to remain anonymous, said, “The university does have an office, but it’s TUT staff, not NSFAS. They do not help you with what you need; they rely on NSFAS.

“If you have an enquiry, they direct you to call NSFAS or say you should wait on NSFAS… My funding was approved in September, but they [TUT] can’t release funds until NSFAS does.”

In May 2025, NSFAS had 5,533 appeals over outstanding documents. In August 2024, NSFAS was battling to ease the backlog of student queries and appeals with a designated staff of between 80 and 86. This led to MPs calling for NSFAS to be decentralised.

Read more: MPs demand accountability as NSFAS struggles with payments, backlogs and ICT failures.

MPs slate high rental 

Daily Maverick spoke to MPs from the Portfolio Committee on Higher Education who have repeatedly condemned NSFAS’s high expenditure on the Cape Town office while students face persistent funding problems.

Economic Freedom Fighters MP Sihle Lonzi said, “Universities already have financial aid offices. In fact, in some institutions I’ve visited, there are even empty offices that are not being utilised. There’s no reason why we don’t have one or two representatives of NSFAS who are going to be fully stationed in each and every university and college in the country, so that when the students need assistance, they don’t have to worry about travelling down to Cape Town. They can access a readily available office.”

The Democratic Alliance’s Dr Delmaine Christians said, “Decentralisation would be overwhelmingly beneficial for students. NSFAS itself has indicated that decentralisation will take place in phases and that it will not result in job losses or retrenchments. This is important because a phased approach allows for continuity of institutional knowledge while building real, on-campus capacity.

“For years, the centralised, Cape Town-based model has been too distant and slow to respond to the realities faced by students and institutions.”

“We’ve always disagreed with the fact that they pay so much for that building, but at the same time, they’re not efficient for students. So it will definitely save them a lot of money, and also with the decentralisation process, it adds more value in terms of being client-friendly,” said MK’s Mnqobi Msezane.

NSFAS CEO responds 

NSFAS’s acting CEO, Waseem Carrim, said, “NSFAS is committed to a decentralisation of service process from the 2026 academic year onwards in a phased-in approach at a pace and scale that the entity can implement and afford.

“NSFAS has a history of implementing policy decisions without building the right processes, skills and capacity. It is determined not to make the same mistake as it rolls out decentralised services.”

Carrim also noted that “substantial improvements” had been made to information and communication technology (ICT) systems, which he expected to “show effect in the assessment, registration and disbursement cycles”.

NSFAS recently closed its application process for student funding for 2026, and will start communicating application results via the myNSFAS portal from 15 December. DM