The National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) has approved more than 600,000 funding applications for the 2026 academic year out of nearly 900,000 submissions received nationwide. In a media conference on Tuesday, NSFAS board chairpersonDr Mugwena Malulekesaid the scheme received a record of 893,847 applications by the December 31 deadline, highlighting the growing demand for financial support in higher education. “Of the applications received, 609,653 have been approved, while about 218,000 remain incomplete due to outstanding documentation.
A further 16,862 applications were cancelled and 49,538 rejected after a review process,” said Maluleke. He praised NSFAS management for working under pressure to meet deadlines, noting that some officials worked throughout December to ensure applicants received funding outcomes by December 15 2025. “Some members of management did not even go on leave in December because there was a troubleshooting team ensuring that applicants were able to receive their statuses on time,” he said.
NSFAS acting CEO Waseem Carrim said the scheme had received approximately 12,000 loan applications under the Missing Middle Loan Fund, with outcomes expected to be released imminently. NSFAS does have sufficient funding to make the upfront payments to institutions for February and March, which effectively covers the start of the 2026 academic year “We received about 12,000 loan applications, and as indicated previously, we will be releasing the loan outcomes in the coming week,” Carrim said. “We will also issue a statement detailing the number of approved applications for the Missing Middle Loan Fund.” Carrim said discussions with the Treasury regarding NSFAS’s 2026 budget were still under way, with final figures expected once the national budget was tabled.
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“We are still engaged in the budget process with National Treasury. The budget will be published in the third week of February after the state of the nation address, and at that point we will be able to give a clearer indication of our final budget numbers for the 2026 academic year,” he said. Despite the ongoing budget process, Carrim assured students and institutions that NSFAS had sufficient funding to meet immediate commitments. “NSFAS does have sufficient funding to make the upfront payments to institutions for February and March, which effectively covers the start of the 2026 academic year,” he said.
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