• ACTis has raised two flags for the NSF and placed three under monitoring.
• Prolonged acting appointments at the leadership level have impacted the NSF’s stability during its transition to an independent entity. This has also weakened governance continuity and the capacity to address long-standing operational and financial deficiencies.
• Inadequate internal controls and poor consequence management can be conducive to the mismanagement of project funding. Weak oversight mechanisms have made irregularities harder to detect and address. There is reliance on external investigations to identify project concerns retroactively, but this applies only to a limited selection. Consequence management for officials appears limited, which calls into question the NSF’s ability to self-correct promptly given the scale of its challenges.
• NSF appears to face systemic governance challenges, but there are no clear shadow network dynamics symptomatic of state capture in operation.
• The cost of NSF’s dysfunction is evident: in 2024/25, the NSF reported that only 5 847 learners completed their education and training courses, against a target of 29 210. The AGSA believes the real figure is lower. Only 865 bursary students completed their qualifications against a target of 3 500, and only 47 small businesses were assisted against a target of 15 500.