Big problem for South Africans who make less than R600,000 a year
Households earning between R350,000 and R600,000 a year can’t afford tertiary education for their children in South Africa.
Due to policy gaps in the country’s funding mechanisms, these households are being referred to as the “missing middle”.
This is the feedback from Ryan Passmore, a Durban-based fintech founder of ZenFund Connect, who believes this is a systemic problem in South Africa.
In an interview with BizNews, he pointed to the mounting pressure on the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) as evidence of the scale of the crisis.
According to Passmore, NSFAS received more than 900,000 first-time applications in 2026, of which 700,000 were approved while over 100,000 were rejected outright.
Additionally, a further 500,000 continuing students were assessed, but only around 100,000 received approval. However, he argued that the most overlooked group is the missing middle.
Passmore explained that the missing middle are households earning between R350,000 and R600,000 per year.
“They do not qualify for NASFAS and state funding, and they cannot afford the R19,000 a month that the University of Pretoria says it costs to put a child through an undergraduate degree,” he said.
According to Passmore, many students in this income bracket simply never apply for university funding because they have no viable options available to them.
Passmore argued that the problem is not necessarily a lack of capital or trust in the funding system, but rather outdated policy thresholds that have failed to keep pace with inflation and rising living costs.
“NASFAS funds households below R350,000 a year, and above that line, you are expected to self-fund. There’s no middle path at the moment in a country where R350,000 a year does not buy you what it bought you a decade ago,” he said.
Developing a solution for South Africa’s missing middle
He said families in this income category are often overlooked because they appear financially stable on paper, but still struggle to afford tertiary education.
“They’re too well off to qualify for sympathy and too poor to qualify for relief,” Passmore said. He described these households as the backbone of South Africa’s working class.
These include South African nurses, teachers, civil servants, and small business owners, whose children represent talent the country cannot afford to lose.
“It is a problem that needs to be solved holistically, end to end. It cannot be solved just in isolation around student funding,” Passmore said.
Passmore said he has built ZenFund Connect over the years to address this challenge through what he described as an “end-to-end solution” for students.
The platform offers bursary opportunities, student loans, accredited accommodation, and eventually career placement services.
Passmore explained that students would enter the platform after matric, apply for bursaries or loans, and then access verified student accommodation providers before eventually transitioning into graduate employment opportunities.
Part of the platform’s focus is ensuring accommodation providers meet Department of Higher Education and Training standards.
Passmore said landlords would need to pass a “stringent auditing process” before listing properties on the platform, to improve transparency and ensure students are placed in accredited housing.
Looking ahead, Passmore said the success of ZenFund Connect would ultimately be measured by how many students secure jobs after graduation.
“Funding alone doesn’t solve unemployment. Funding plus housing, plus credit building, plus career placement does.”
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