In todays latest NSFAS News – University Of Venda Clears Allowance for NSFAS Funded Students. Management became aware of unpaid allowances due and payable to UNIVEN students by 01 November 2023 to at least 9,668 students. The Financial Aid Office contacted Tenetec, a NSFAS direct payment service provider, and NSFAS to enquire about the reasons for such delay. Tenetec informed the University that they received a file with only 177 students. NSFAS further confirmed that they were busy with reconciliation and would soon provide a final reconciliation.
Considering the seriousness of this matter and its impact on student well-being and success, my office approached the Chairperson of the NSFAS board to intervene and expedite outstanding allowances to our students. Realising that NSFAS was not in the position to quickly expedite such payments at speed to our students, I requested the Chairperson of the NSFAS board to grant us permission to pay our UNIVEN funded students from university funds, with the expectation that NSFAS will refund the University after their reconciliation process is complete.
NSFAS management gave us the go-ahead to pay funded students their November 2023 allowances.
However, I want to draw this to your attention that, bypassing NSFAS processes is not a practice that the University will execute in the future, this special once off intervention was necessitated by our desire to avoid hunger and humanitarian crisis amongst our students as they are busy with their exams.
We used the June 2023 Fundi payment report and Tenetec’s September 2023 payment report to select eligible students for allowances. In cases where students receive more than R16,500 in food allowances, such should be reported to Financial Aid, as this would affect your 2024 allowance payments. If you are a final-year student, any over-payment made will be debited from your student account.
The Financial Aid Office has loaded allowances on the Fundi App on 08 November 2023; as such, students should receive their payment on Friday, 10 November 2023.
All the best with your exams and remember that you need to pass a minimum of 55% of all modules enrolled to secure NSFAS funding in 2024.
Kind regards,
Prof Bernard Nthambeleni Vice Chancellor and Principal
www.univen.ac.za
