Despite an injection of funds from the National Treasury, The National Student Financial Aid Scheme (Nsfas) is requesting financial assistance from the private sector.
Nsfas has announced that the extra R32-million it's getting from the government just isn't enough as the budget does not match its growth.
Nsfas CEO Andile Nongogo has assured the public that there is sufficient funding for students. Last week, Nsfas announced that all eligible qualifying students will receive bursaries from the fund.
Nongogo explained that while the number of people supported by Nsfas has increased, along with the budget to cover them, the administration budget has not increased.
He adds that the current budget for administration is 0.9% per annum of the total budget it receives for student funding. He believes that the normal percent should be between 5% and 10%.
The CEO is now calling on the private sector to share their expertise and help aid some of the issues the scheme is facing.
He said, “We have an operational plan as an organisation, we have a strategic plan and of course, the private sector money would be in good hands and even there, we are not even asking for handouts from the private sector, we are merely calling on service providers to say we need these systems developed can you not develop this at risk for us”.
"Let's find a way on how you can get your revenue over time, let's find a way where you can maybe use our systems, our products, how can we generate revenue through those mechanisms so it's really what we are calling for” concluded Nongogo.
