The University of South Africa (Unisa) will deposit student allowances and refunds using its new electronic fund transfer (EFT) process.
This comes after it was revealed that allowance payments from the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) were made in March 2023.
Unisa revealed that NSFAS allowances were paid to more than 90,000 students at the institution during March. The university's status as a distance learning institution also has an impact on the allowances NSFAS provides to their students.
Students at Unisa receive a learning material allowance and the incidental allowance from NSFAS. The incidental allowance is also referred to as the personal care allowance.
Here's When 2023 NSFAS Allowances Will Be Paid At Unisa
While Unisa made allowance payments from 15 March, students are reminded that it could take several days before the money reflects in their bank accounts.
NSFAS allowances will be processed twice a month, in the first and the third week of each month
The university added that students could wait for up to 15 working days before refunds reflect in their bank accounts.
How Unisa Allowance Payments Work
An email will be sent to a student’s myLife email address if they qualify for an allowance or refund. This email will contain a secure link to a website.
Once a student clicks on the link of taking them to the website, they will be required to provide and submit their banking details.
Unisa said, “After reading the email carefully, click on the link, enter your banking details and submit these. Only your own, active bank account can be used.”
The university reminded students to provide their banking details as payments to third-party accounts will not be processed. The bank account information provided by the student will be verified against their ID number.
The verification status of the details submitted by the student will be displayed. This may not occur immediately, therefore, students should revisit the link until such time the information is displayed.
Unisa says if the bank account verification fails or is rejected, students must re-enter their banking details and make sure that all the information they provided is correct.
Students encountering challenges are encouraged to direct enquiries to the dsfref [at] unisa.ac.za (Unisa Directorate of Student Funding).
