The National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) is introducing its new direct payment solution for student allowances, through the NSFAS MasterCard. All NSFAS funded students will be provided with a MasterCard and a bank account where monthly allowances will be disbursed directly, on a monthly basis. The new solution will be introduced with the assistance third party financial services providers.

This new payment solution will alleviate challenges experienced through the current allowance payment method as well as appropriately cater for the ever-increasing number of beneficiaries and large amount of funds to be disbursed.

With the estimated number of NSFAS funded students at 900,000, not all these students will be onboarded onto the new payment system immediately, NSFAS will pilot this solution with a set number of students first, following which the full roll-out will occur in a phased-in approach.

In the end, all NSFAS funded students should receive their allowances and transact through the NSFAS Mastercard.

To guarantee a pleasant student experience and that student allowances are used for what they are intended for, NSFAS took precautionary measures, and the system will be secure and easy to use.