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THE University of South Africa (Unisa) has pleaded with students to be patient and allow officials to ensure that the relevant processes are taken for the distribution of student’s allowances.
Some students from Unisa took to social media giant Twitter last week, stating that they have not received their
National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) allowances.
Earlier this month, the university announced that it would be ditching Intellimali and depositing NSFAS allowances directly into the bank accounts of students.
Intellimali is a service provider that handled the disbursements of allowances to students. Unisa and Intellimali had an arrangement for three years that ran its course and was seemingly not renewed.
Intellimali was the company at the heart of the “NSFAS Millionaire” scandal which saw a student incorrectly receive R14 million for their allowance. That case was recently decided in a guilty verdict and a five year prison sentence, but is currently being appealed.
At no point in these proceedings, however, does Unisa mention the Intellimali agreement not being renewed because of this scandal.
The university said it would now be depositing NSFAS allowances directly into the bank accounts of students.
“The three-year agreement between UNISA and Intellimali for the disbursements of allowance
has come to an end on the 31st March 2022.”
The university further announced that it would release all the allowances during the month of April.
“The university is working tirelessly to ensure that allowances are released during this month of
April 2022,” the university said in a statement.
However, Unisa pleaded with students to be patient with the issue of allowances.
“As per the recent message, Unisa is in the process of preparing to pay allowances directly to
students’ bank accounts. Addressing this matter successfully is a priority for the institution. We
plead with students to please be patient and allow relevant officials to ensure that all the
relevant processes are in place for the distribution of these allowances,” the university said.
The institution further added that they do not want to accidentally leave out qualifying students.
“The institution does not want to accidentally leave any qualifying student behind. The team is
working tirelessly to ensure this exercise comes to a fruition. In the meantime, students are requested to ensure that they have active bank accounts. Also ensure that your contact details on myUnisa are up to date and that you have also activated the myLife email. As soon as the online platform for capturing banking details is running, Unisa will inform students accordingly,’ the announcement concludes.
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