If you haven’t heard the good news, South Africa’s Home Affairs is collecting banks like Infinity Stones in a bid to expand the country’s access to smart ID and passport services. First came FNB and Capitec, followed by Standard Bank, Absa, Discovery Bank, and now, finally, African Bank and Nedbank have joined the charge.
Home Affairs goes all in
Home Affairs Minister Leon Schreiber first confirmed that African Bank had joined the fray in a social media post on Tuesday, before following it up with the news of Nedbank’s rather late arrival to the programme today.
“Nedbank just became the 7th bank to join our new digital partnership model to deliver Smart IDs and Passports in 100s more bank branches and on digital banking apps. Working together through technology to deliver dignity for all!” Home Affairs Minister Leon Schreiber wrote.
The eventual goal for Home Affairs is to have more than 1,000 bank branches dotted around the country offering these smart ID and passport services by 2029, of which only roughly 30 currently participate. With seven banks under its belt, and likely more to follow in the coming weeks, it should hit that target sooner rather than later.
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Another big step involves digitising the process, allowing users to visit their banking app to book a smart ID or passport appointment at their nearest branch. FNB fully embraced the idea, though it still hasn’t mentioned when its customers can expect the upgrades to hit the app. It’s not yet clear which other banks will follow first.
According to MyBroadband, African Bank personal banking CEO Sibongiseni Ngundze said that it would first comply with Home Affairs’ wishes by providing the services in five bank branches by 2026. That will then expand to 100 branches… sometime after March 2026.
“Post the five branches, we will expand this service to 100 other branches countrywide,” he said. “We are extremely proud of this partnership as it will alleviate the need for customers to travel far for Home Affairs services.”
