Home Affairs expands smart ID and passport services through partnership with Capitec and FNB
Image: Ntswe Mokoena/GCIS
Home Affairs has teamed up with Capitec and FNB to offer Smart ID and Passport services at hundreds of bank branches across South Africa.
The partnership was confirmed by the Minister of Home Affairs, Leon Schreiber, in a statement released to the media late on Monday, saying he was "proud to announce Capitec Bank and First National Bank as the first banks that have elected to sign up to the Department's new digital partnership model.
"That will expand access to Smart ID and Passport services from the existing 30 to hundreds more bank branches in both urban and rural areas across South Africa, as well as to digital banking applications".
According to Schreiber this move is part of the Medium-Term Development Plan, which sets a target for Home Affairs to expand its services to 1,000 bank branches by 2029.
The department added that, in line with this, Director-General Tommy Makhode also invited the CEOs of major banks, including ABSA, African Bank, TymeBank, Discovery Bank, Investec Bank, Nedbank, and Standard Bank, to participate in this next phase of digital collaboration on April 30 2025.
According to the department, this "collaboration dates back more than a decade and has, until now, seen the successful delivery of Smart ID and Passport services at only 30 branches across five different banks".
The Department also noted that previous delivery of these services at bank branches relied on duplicating Home Affairs staff and equipment, which was costly and limited the scale of service delivery.
"As the first banks to respond positively to the invitation to further enhance the longstanding partnership between Home Affairs and the banking sector, Minister Schreiber will visit Capitec and FNB this week to provide further information on how this reform will benefit all South Africans"
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