Check How The New Nsfas Student Accommodation Portal Works

The Higher Education department offers accommodation to funded students while they are studying. Accommodation providers can now prove that their accommodation is worth the money being paid by the department. This gives confidence to prospective students that the accommodation provider is worth its name and more importantly, worth the money paid.

Thousands of students get bursaries from the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (Nsfas) to fund their higher education journey. They receive comprehensive bursaries to cover tuition fees, transport costs, education material costs and grocery costs.

The Nsfas accommodation allowance ensures that students can live closer to the university or college where they are studying. This means that you do not have to resign yourself to living in a far-off place far from your school or better still, bunking in with others outside campus.

Many students who live far from the higher learning institution they attend may not be able to attend class regularly if they don’t receive accommodation allowances.

Accommodation facilities have become important learning centres for students. Students who do not have accommodation at home or who are not able to afford accommodation can seek help at these facilities.

In an effort to ensure students have accommodation that is conducive to learning, Nsfas launched a portal which allows accommodation providers to be considered for Nsfas funded students.

Students now have an easy way to find a room. Providers can register and load their accommodation facilities on the Nsfas student accommodation portal.

Once signed in, accommodation providers will be able to list their properties by providing their property names, location and images. Nsfas will then contact them and send a panel of experts to accredit and grade the properties to ensure that they are suitable for student living.

Nsfas provides accommodation allowances to students enrolled in approved learning programmes at Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) college. However, Nsfas calculates this accommodation allowance based on the type of area the accommodation is situated in. In 2021, Nsfas allocated funded-students with an accommodation as per the actual costs charged by the university they attend.

Students living in peri-urban, urban and rural areas are allocated with appropriately high accommodation allowance. The accommodation allowance is subjected to certain conditions that students must meet in order for them to qualify for the allowance.

The following companies will sign offtake agreements with Nsfas to provide student accommodation for our beneficiaries. The offtake agreement is an arrangement between a producer and a buyer to purchase or sell portions of the producer’s upcoming goods or services

In the case of Nsfas, they want accommodation providers to agree to host the scheme’s beneficiaries in their accommodation facilities.

The application process to sign off-take agreements is for underdeveloped and yet-to-be-developed accommodation facilities. These do not apply to accommodation providers who are currently providing accommodation to Nsfas beneficiaries.