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Urgent communication regarding payment of subsidies to NSFAS-funded UFS students

06 April 2022 | Story Lacea Loader

The National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) confirmed in a circular this week that monies will be paid to universities on 8 April 2022.

This will be the first payment that the University of the Free State (UFS) receives from NSFAS this year, as per the media statement by the Minister of Higher Education, Science and Innovation, Dr Blade Nzimande.

So far this year, the UFS management has made several concessions to students to alleviate their financial pressure while waiting for their NSFAS subsidies to be released.

This week, the university management – through active engagements and input from the Institutional Student Representative Council (ISRC) – agreed on the following process for book and meal allowances to be transferred to students’ bank accounts at the earliest possible opportunity:

As in the past, the services of Fundi will be used to pay the allowances to students.
Fundi will inform the recipients of monies received for them.
After the banking details of students have been validated, monies are transferred to a student’s bank account. Fundi will inform students whose banking details are incorrect to rectify it on the Fundi website.
Students who have not received payments before, will be requested to upload their banking details on the Fundi website, after which payment will be made.

It is anticipated that students whose bank accounts are with Standard Bank will receive notice of the payment of their allowance as soon as Friday, 8 April 2022.

Students banking with other banks will receive their payments subject to the inter-banking money transfer policies of the different banks, but not later than two business days after payment.

What students must do:

Ensure that you upload the correct banking details.
Upload your OWN banking details, not the banking details of friends or family.
Ensure that your cellphone number is correct and active on PeopleSoft.
Respond as quickly as possible to SMSes received from Fundi.

The university management would like to thank the majority of students for their patience during this difficult time while waiting for the NSFAS subsidies to be released.

Released by:
Lacea Loader (Director: Communication and Marketing)
Telephone: +27 51 401 2584 | +27 83 645 2454
Email: news@ufs.ac.za | loaderl@ufs.ac.za

News Archive

#Women'sMonth: Kovsie entrepreneur making waves in business world

2017-08-25

Akhona Monakalali to take on the business world.
Photo: Rulanzen Martin

Whoever came up with the idea that ‘a woman’s place is in the kitchen’, has definitely not met Akhona Monakalali. Monakalali, a postgraduate student busy with an Accounting diploma on the Bloemfontein Campus of the University of the Free State (UFS), is a force to be reckoned with. She was born in Katlehong Township in Gauteng, and moved to Aliwal North in the Eastern Cape a few years later.

Making international waves in business
Monakalali is a Professional Accountant and an entrepreneur who continues to make her mark in the entrepreneurial world. She just recently participated in the Progressive African Network’s (PAN) Annual African Entrepreneurship Expo in Boston, USA, which was hosted by PAN and the Hult Women in Business Club. She was invited to the expo to share her insights on entrepreneurship in South Africa. “I and four other Africans participated in the expo via Skype. It was a very successful event and very insightful,” she says.

Awarded for positive contribution in communities
While she was doing her undergraduate degree, she was elected as the President/CEO of the Golden Key UFS Chapter in 2007. After competing with other universities in the national championships, they won and qualified for the Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) World Cup in New York City. SIFE is an international non-profit organisation working with university students who want to change their communities positively, and gain practical knowledge to become socially responsible business leaders.

This international acknowledgement influenced her peers – among millions of other South African teens – to vote for her in the Seventeen Magazine’s Top Teen Achiever Award for her community contribution. Later in that same year, she received a special Service Leadership Award from the Dean of her faculty for her contribution towards creating a better world through business.
She has since established an in-home tutoring foundation called Monakali Academy, which offers parents and struggling students affordable, one-on-one tutoring in the comfort of their homes.
“Tutoring is performed in the student’s home in order to provide a comfortable and non-competitive environment for learning,” says Monakalali.
She will also be involved with various entrepreneurs throughout Africa, working on ways to improve youth entrepreneurship on the African continent.

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