The Department of Home Affairs plans to expand its Smart ID and passport partnership with South Africa’s banks, by adding 20 additional branches to the programme in major urban centres. The Smart ID partnership was launched in 2015, with Standard Bank, Absa, Nedbank and FNB joining the programme.
The service allows South Africans to go to select bank branches to apply for the new Smart ID card, book an appointment to capture biometrics, and then be notified when the card is ready for collection.
Speaking to IOL, the department revealed that, to date, the participating banks have processed in excess of 168,000 Smart IDs and over 152,000 passports.
According to the department, it intends to open 20 more branches in SA banks, targeting other urban areas, such as Durban, Pietermaritzburg, East London, Nelspruit and Polokwane.
All but one of the participating branches are located in Gauteng, with Standard Bank at Canal Walk in the Western Cape being the only branch outside the province.
It aims to finalise the public-private partnership with the banking sector before the end of the current financial year.
How to apply for a Smart ID
If you select a bank branch when applying for a Smart ID or passport, you are asked to book an appointment to have your fingerprints captured and photograph taken.
Once your application is paid and your biometric data is captured, Home Affairs will send you an SMS when your smart ID or passport is ready for collection.
If there isn’t a supported bank branch near you, you will have to go to one of the 184 Home Affairs branches equipped to process Smart IDs. A full list can be found here.
The department currently has the Smart ID services available at 13 banks. The pilot was run at 14 banks, but the service at the Absa branch at Ghandi Square, Johannesburg, has since closed.
The 13 bank branches include:
- Absa Lifestyle Centre – Centurion
- Absa Towers – Johannesburg
- FNB Towers -Johannesburg
- FNB Lifestyle Centre – Centurion
- FNB Menlyn – Pretoria
- FNB Merchant – Sandton
- Nedbank Arcadia – Pretoria
- Nedbank Constantia Kloof – Johannesburg
- Nedbank Rivonia – Sandton
- Standard Bank – Centurion
- Standard Bank Killarney Mall – Johannesburg
- Standard Bank Simmonds Street – Johannesburg
- Standard Bank Canal Walk – Western Cape
This article was sourced from BusinessTech; the original publication can be viewed here.
