Minister of Higher Education, Technology and Innovation Itah Kandjii-Murangi announced a plan to overhaul the Namibia Students Financial Assistance Fund (NSFAF) funding system, through a multi-layered funding model to ensure long-term sustainability.
The government is exploring innovative approaches, including the potential leveraging of fish quotas and the expansion of the Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) levy into a comprehensive education levy.
“The idea of broadening the TVET levy to an education levy is under consideration, which involves engaging stakeholders for broader buy-in,” Kandjii-Murangi explained.
Recognising Namibia’s wealth in natural resources, she noted that the government is also exploring the potential of using regional fish quotas to support educational funding.
Kandjii-Murangi said this initiative aims to address existing disparities in educational support, particularly for students with excellent academic records but whose parents’ income fall above the financial threshold for NSFAF assistance and to expand the funds financing capacity.
“The current NSFAF model predominantly supports students from low-income backgrounds, leaving those with excellent academic records but parents above the financial threshold underserved,” Minister Kandjii-Murangi stated.
She noted that the current NSFAF model predominantly supports students from low-income backgrounds, leaving those with excellent academic records but parents above the financial threshold underserved.
Thus, the proposed multi-layer funding model aims to address this gap by providing partial funding options to cover either tuition or non-tuition expenses for students whose parents can afford some but not all educational costs.
Minister Kandjii-Murangi also emphasised the need for an efficient recovery process for the Fund.
“Recent improvements have already seen recoveries exceeding N$17 million this year,” she noted.
In addressing immediate educational needs, the government has worked with public institutions such as UNAM, NUST and vocational training centres to provide opportunities for students who narrowly missed secondary school requirements.
“This initiative ensures that more students can pursue higher education and professional training, supporting the country’s educational and developmental goals,” said the Minister.
This comes as the Fund has over the years struggled to meet fund needs due to poor repayments of past beneficiaries and an overwhelming increasing number of new beneficiaries.
Within the last year, the ever-increasing demand for financial assistance has led the Ministry of Finance to increase the allocation to NSFAF from N$1.6 billion in 2023 to N$2.4 billion for the current financial year, a 50% budget increase.
The TVET levy came into being, following the publication in the Government Gazette on the 27th of January 2014 of the final notice by the then Minister of Education, to impose the levy on eligible employers.
Under this notice, all Namibian-registered employers with an annual payroll of N$1 million, or more, are required to pay one percent of the value of their actual annual payrolls as a levy to the NTA’s National Training Fund, every month.
In turn, the NTA is to apply such funds towards upskilling and training Namibians in key national priority training and occupation areas.
