South Africa’s Department of Home Affairs has activated the first bank branches under its expanded digital partnership model for Smart ID services, with plans to extend the service to banking apps by end of 2026.
Nine branches operated by Capitec Bank and Standard Bank are already processing Smart ID applications, with 17 branches expected to be live within the week. Clients can complete an application in five to ten minutes without prior booking. First National Bank is in final testing, with other bank partners at varying stages of implementation.
South Africa’s Smart ID is a biometric-enabled smart card introduced in 2013 to replace the older green bar-coded ID book. It is linked to the country’s modernized identity system and serves as a credential for banking access, employment and social grants. Home Affairs said about 16 million South Africans still use the older document, which it described as one of the continent’s most frequently defrauded identity papers. Shifting that population to the Smart ID card is both a service upgrade and a credential-hardening exercise.
The longer-range plan targets 1,000 participating bank branches across South Africa by 2029. In the shorter term, Home Affairs said the service mix will expand through 2026 to include first-time Smart ID applications, passport services, courier delivery and, notably, applications submitted through banking apps. That last element extends the model beyond branch access into the mobile channel, a shift that would allow South Africans to initiate identity document applications directly from their phones.
The rollout builds on South Africa’s earlier expansion of the digital ID bank partnership to include Absa and Discovery, and comes as access and cost remain in debate following a dispute over the country’s identity verification fee structure.
Sources: Department of Home Affairs
–
By the Mobile ID World Editorial Team
