The NSFAS Bursary Agreement form is ready and available for signing

The NSFAS Bursary Agreement form is ready and available for signing

May 2024

The National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) Bursary Agreement (NBA) is now available for students to sign. The NBA is applicable to First Time Entering Students (FTENs) only and senior students that are receiving for NSFAS funding for the first time. The bursary agreements came as a result of the fee-free education pronouncement and will be replacing the previous loan agreement form which students signed to enable NSFAS to make payments towards their tuition and allowances.

The NBA has been released to the students whose registration data has been received by NSFAS from institutions. On Thursday 10 May the first tranche of notifications for NBAs was sent to students from the University of Cape Town, Sol Plaatjie University, Mfolozi, Port Elizabeth, and Motheo TVET Colleges respectively. These students received e-mail notifications with a link for them to sign the NBA online. The scheme anticipates that all tranches will be out by May 31st, 2024.

In the event that the online signing option is not functioning optimally, NSFAS will make available a manual NBA for onsite physical signing, which will be driven by the NSFAS Servicing Team via the Financial Aid Offices in the various campuses. However, we do want to discourage students for waiting for paper signing when they can sign online.

NSFAS is aware that students change their contact details and that the cell phone numbers registered at NSFAS systems may no longer be valid. Students who have changed their contact details since the time of application are requested to email the following supporting documents to uds@nsfas.org.za to have their details updated on the system:
1. Certified copy of their green barcoded ID or smart card
2. A completed affidavit specifying that they have changed their cell phone number; with the new and old number listed.

The NSFAS Servicing Team will generate weekly reports on the number of NBAs generated and signed and ensure that these are shared with universities. We will release daily updates on our Twitter page @mynsfas to show where students are delaying in signing of the NBA.

Disbursements and Remittances
Disbursements can only be done for students that have signed their NBAs, noting that senior students that qualified for renewal of funding will automatically receive payments without signing a new NBA. NSFAS will provide monthly Remittance Reports to institutions for the payments made for students and will offset payments against the Upfront payments made earlier in the year. NSFAS has already paid stipends to students via institution worth R6 billion for the month of Jan – June, 2024. Automated disbursement through the NSFAS system will only kick in from July 2024.

Issued by Kagisho Mamabolo NSFAS Spokesperson, on behalf of Management.

Contact Information
Phatisa Ntlonze, Media Liaison
Media Enquries:
media@nsfas.org.za