The National African Students Association (NASA) has taken the initiative to assist students in applying for the Namibia Student Financial Assistance Fund (NSFAF).
NASA's National Secretary for Higher Education, Bonifatius Andreas, says the initiative is to give students a fair chance to benefit from the student loan.
The online application process started last year on November 29 and will run until February 28.
Their offer to assist is to avoid students not getting the loan due to minor errors or obstacles, NASA's National Secretary for Higher Education, Bonifatius Andreas, says.
"These students merely receive assistance, especially when NSFAF closed all its regional officers and decentralised its services to Windhoek, and any student facing challenges is often required to contact NSFAF secretariats via emails and calls, which, on many occasions, never proved to be an ineffective means of communication. This has led to a significant rise in the number of self-funded students and dropouts at higher institutions because of historical debts. The objective of the initiative is to assist students without access to internet facilities and without knowledge of the application to apply for funding. This includes online applications and the proper signing of loan contracts."
Andreas says the association has recruited student volunteers who are familiar with the NSFAF online application and funding eligibility criteria.
He further stated that volunteers will be working closely with NSFAF secretariats to help potential students apply for funding for free.
Andreas is calling on all the students who require such assistance to not hesitate but use the chance accorded.
"In Kavango East, we are basically based at the youth centre close to RVTC; in Kavango West, our team will be at the community library; in Ohangwena, they will also be at the Ohangwena library; in Oshona Region, you can find them at the Multipurpose Youth Centre, which is where they are operating; in Zambezi Region, you can also find them at the Zambezi Multipurpose Centre; in Erongo Region, you can find them at Walvis Bay municipality; and in |Khomas Region, you can find them at NUST. We start operating from 9 o'clock up to four o'clock in the afternoon, and we only operate from Monday to Friday."
Andreas highlighted that the application process is free and that the association hopes to, through this programme, assist at least 5000 students.
Documents required are: an ID, birth certificate, Grade 11 or 12 certificate or statement, both parents' ID or passport, both parents pay slip or police declaration indicating if they are unemployed, and applicants' pay slip if employed or police declaration if unemployed.