Well, guess you would be wondering what NSFAS is?

What Is NSFAS?

NSFAS simply means National Student Financial Aid Scheme. It is a scheme that subsidizes the finance cost and supports undergraduate students during their tertiary education. In simple language, it helps finance an undergraduate education in a tertiary school.

What Is The Work Of NSFAS?

What the management of NSFAS does is loan cash to students to help finance their tertiary education. The said loan helps cover tuition fees, books, cost of living, and everything which would help a student stay in the University a success.

With this loan, a beneficiary would pay back the said amount after the person is done with school and has been fully employed and earning more than R30,000 per year.

Who Is Eligible For NSFAS Funds

Now to the big question: who qualifies for NSFAS? Well NSFAS have a few requirements an applicant must fall within before they can apply for NSFAS funds.

One can apply with NSFAS if;

1. Must be a South African

2. Must be in serious need of financial support. This is determined by NSFAS officials through an NSFAS means test.

3. Must be academically good

4. Must have passed Grade 12

5. Students from no-fees schools

6. Orphans

7. Children with unemployed parents

Documents You Need To Help Apply For NSFAS

To commence the NSFAS application process, a person needs the right appropriate documents so as to help them apply with ease with the scheme. If you are to use the online application by NSFAS, all these documents needed would be uploaded to the system and for the manual application, such documents would be presented during submission.

Below are the few documents an applicant would need;

1. Your ID or birth certificate

2. Parent’s proof of income

3. SASSA beneficiaries do not need to provide proof of income

4. Vulnerable children need to fill out the Vulnerable Child Declaration Form

NSFAS Application: How To Apply Online And Manual 

Application to NSFAS is in two types, we have the online application system and the manual application system. These two are accepted by NSFAS. For the online system, an applicant would be tasked to create an MYNSFAS account on the official website of NSFAS. This MyNSFAS account would serve as an applicant’s personal profile.

STEP BY STEP GUIDE TO APPLYING NSFAS ONLINE

1. Visit http://www.nsfas.org.za/

2.  Click on the MyNSFAS tab

3. Create MyNSFAS account

4. Click on ‘’APPLY’’ and provide the necessary answers to questions

5. Upload the necessary documents

6. Click on submit

NSFAS MANUAL APPLICATION

With the manual application, all the applicant needs to do is download the NSFAS application forms from the NSFAS website.

1. Download application forms from http://www.nsfas.org.za/

2. Fill in the necessary details required

3. Attached are the necessary documents required

5. Complete filled application form can be sent via post to NSFAS Loans & Bursaries Department, Private Bag X4, Plumstead, 7801 or scanned and emailed to apply@nsfas.org.za.

NB: Applicants who are already on the scheme do not need to reapply

How Much Money Does NSFAS Give to students? 

I guess by now one would be wondering how much cash an applicant of NSFAS would get after duly going through the required process. Well according to NSFAS, E-Wallet would be created for each student beneficiary and must be activated.

With E-wallet, it is where NSFAS would be depositing monthly NSFAS funds for beneficiaries to access. We have a breakdown of how much each month an NSFAS student beneficiary would receive from NSFAS.

MONTHLY NSFAS FUND

Learning Materials (Books) – ​​R433

Living Allowances – R1250

Incidental Allowances – R241

Travel Allowances – R625

Accommodation – Amount based on school’s demand

Allowances are normally paid at the beginning of each month so as to help cater for the monthly expenses of the student.