NSFAS to end lease for CT building that houses its head office

JOHANNESBURG - The National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) has announced plans to terminate its lease with its landlord in Cape Town, where it pays R2.5 million per month to house its head office. 

This decision comes after Parliament’s portfolio committee on higher education scrutinised NSFAS' choice to spend such a substantial amount on rent. 

The scheme reportedly relocated from a building where it paid R600,000 a month to a more expensive office block on the Foreshore in Cape Town.

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 Partliament’s portfolio committee on higher education questioned why NSFAS' headquarters were based in Cape Town instead of Gauteng, where the majority of its beneficiaries were based.

It also found it unreasonable and impractical to spend R2.5 million on rent when it sometimes faces challenges paying student allowances on time.

Higher Education Minister Nobuhle Nkabane agreed that the financial aid scheme could not continue blowing R2.5 million on rent.

"The plan is to decentralise. We are going to establish regional offices in three provinces, which is the Eastern Cape, Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal. We will see how best we can come up with satellite offices in other provinces.

She said that the building where NSFAS paid R2.5 million per month for rent was not even big enough for all its employees.