The National Student Aid Financial Scheme (NSFAS) has launched an investigation into the alleged fraudulent withdrawals of allowances from students’ accounts.
The move comes after the Weekend Argus published a story last week detailing students’ financial frustrations after NSFAS piloted a direct payment system through a third party.
It hired a consortium of four service providers to disburse student allowances from 2023 over a five-year period, breaking away from past systems of disbursing allowances through vouchers and institutions.
“The direct payment system, as it is built on the banking platform, was designed to eliminate the fraud risk, and also ensure that the beneficiaries receive their allowances on time,” said NSFAS spokesperson Slumezi Skosana.
However, the new payment system has also left hundreds of students without money and no-one to account after fraudulent withdrawals were made on their allowances.
The tender for the programme, estimated to cost about R1.5 billion, was awarded to Norraco Corporation, Coinvest Africa, Tenet Technology and Ezaga Holdings.
Students told Weekend Argus of numerous glitches, alleged hacking and fraudulent withdrawals from the e-accounts.
“Imagine receiving a notification that there is R14 000 in your account in the evening. And you don’t have data to transfer it to your private bank account. And then in the dead of night someone is helping themselves to the money,” said a student at Boland College, Caledon campus.
The alleged fraudsters appeared as Joy Monza, Magandula, Mohammed or Nonja on the students’ bank statements.
NSFAS said it was aware of the “reported allegations” and had launched a probe.
Weekend Argus