Nkabane says NSFAS should move out of head office where it pays R2m in rent a month

CAPE TOWN - Minister of Higher Education and Technology Nobuhle Nkabane said the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) should move out of its head office, where it is paying R2 million monthly.

Nkabane said the process to move the NSFAS from the fancy Cape Town Foreshore headquarters had started.

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The minister was briefing Parliament’s Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA) on Tuesday about the entity’s annual report and its performance.

The Higher Education portfolio committee was the first committee to raise its objections to NSFAS occupying an office space at such a high monthly cost.

Nkabane also addressed the matter before SCOPA, saying a decision was taken to find more cost-effective offices by the next academic year.

"There’s this one of the rental offices in Cape Town at R2.5 million per month. I instructed both the director-general and the administrator that they must sit down and see how best we can regionalise."

She said the regional shift would see four provinces having regional offices, and other provinces will have mobile offices based at the various institutions.