The National Student Financial Aid Scheme is owed R49.5 billion by hundreds of thousands of former students who received loans under its previous funding model.

According to figures reported by News24, a total of 823,888 debtors remain linked to outstanding legacy loans.

The loans were issued between 1991 and 2017, before government shifted NSFAS towards a predominantly bursary-based funding model.

The massive outstanding balance places fresh attention on NSFAS’s ability to recover money from former beneficiaries who are required to repay their loans.

Debt dates back more than three decades

The outstanding accounts stretch back to the early years of South Africa’s student financial aid system.

Before 2018, qualifying students generally received funding as loans, with repayment obligations applying once beneficiaries met the relevant employment and income requirements.

The system changed significantly when government introduced fee-free higher education support for qualifying poor and working-class students from 2018.

This means the R49.5 billion figure relates to older loan accounts rather than bursaries currently awarded to eligible students.

Outstanding balance has continued growing

NSFAS had already raised concerns about unpaid legacy loans before the latest figures emerged.

In August 2025, the scheme said it was owed about R45 billion and called on former beneficiaries who were working to repay what they owed.

The latest R49.5 billion figure indicates the recorded outstanding balance is now considerably higher.

Recovering the money is important because repayments can be returned to the student funding system and used to support future beneficiaries.

NSFAS remains under financial pressure

The unpaid loans come as NSFAS continues to manage funding for more than one million students while dealing with wider financial and operational challenges.

The scheme was placed under administration in May 2026 after Higher Education Minister Buti Manamela cited governance, financial and operational failures.

The R49.5 billion legacy debt adds another major challenge.

With more than 823,000 former beneficiaries linked to the outstanding loans, recovering even a portion of the money could provide significant additional resources for student funding.