The National Student Financial Aid Scheme says it has discovered that some accommodation providers submitted names of ghost students who aren't enrolled in any universities or colleges.

After numerous reported threats to evict students from accommodation following the National Student Financial Aid Scheme's (NSFAS) failure to pay accommodation providers in time after not meeting the deadline agreed upon by both the scheme and providers, NSFAS says it has uncovered that there are ghost students in the information submitted by providers, which has caused delays in processing funds.

According to NSFAS spokesperson Ishmael Mnisi, on 27 January 2025, the scheme approved and disseminated the lease agreements to be uploaded to the accommodation portal. Through the portal, NSFAS made the functionality available for accommodation providers to begin signing on the same day across all four portals. The deadline for submitting payment claims for the current payment run was set for 14 March. A verification process was then completed to ensure everything was going smoothly.

However, "during the verification process, NSFAS identified ghost students, who are neither funded by NSFAS nor enrolled in any public university or college. This discovery underscores the importance of the verification process, which is a crucial step for NSFAS in processing payments to accommodation providers," Mnisi said.

NSFAS would now investigate all accommodation providers who had submitted incorrect information in an attempt to "unlawfully benefit...