The number of bank branches supporting smart ID card and passport renewal services is set to more than double in the near future.

That is according to feedback from major banks that currently support the eHomeAffairs service.

Since 2016, a pilot of the service has enabled Department of Home Affairs (DHA) staff to work in bank branches to facilitate smart ID card applications and passport renewals.

The service also uses a paperless system for making online appointments, submitting forms, and making payments to significantly speed up the process and reduce queuing time.

Many users have reported excellent experiences in using the service, which has processed over 1.4 million smart ID card applications and passport renewals.

However, in its present format, the service offers minimal benefit to participating banks — Absa, Discovery Bank, FNB, Nedbank, and Standard Bank.

To resolve this and enable an expansion, the Banking Association of South Africa (BASA) has been facilitating discussions on public-private partnership (PPP) agreements between the banks and the DHA for about three years.

BASA’s prudential head, Mark Brits, recently told MyBroadband the agreements should be mostly completed and signed by the end of September 2024, with just some final legal ironing to go.

The PPPs will allow the banks to use their own employees and infrastructure to run the service, which could make it commercially viable.

Considering the development, MyBroadband asked the banks whether they planned to expand their branches offering eHomeAffairs.

Four banks — Absa, Discovery Bank, FNB, and Nedbank — confirmed they would add the service to additional branches once the PPPs were in place.

FNB currently plans to add 18 eHomeAffairs-enabled branches, taking its total tally to 25.

“We plan to have representation across all nine provinces in urban centres,” FNB told MyBroadband.

While it did not provide specific planned branch locations, the bank’s initial focus will be on provinces where it does not currently support the service.

“Considering that we currently only have representation in Gauteng, Western Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Limpopo, we will start our rollout first into those provinces without any representation,” FNB explained.

“With that said, we are looking to start our rollout into other provinces once we first see an increase in customers from other provinces that are making use of the service.”

FNB said the project scope and planning would take some time to understand, so it could not confirm any specific rollout dates at this stage.

 

Absa managing executive for integrated channels, Tshiwela Mhlantla, said Absa had an additional 12 branches currently ready for activation.

“Further details will be shared once discussions are finalised,” Absa said.

Although Nedbank also confirmed it wanted to expand its eHomeAffairs services, it did not elaborate on how many branches it would add.

The bank said the rollout strategy would be based on a continuous review of the landscape to identify further expansion opportunities.

“The implementation of the expansion plan will be guided by the learnings and insights when the existing six pilot sites are handed over to Nedbank,” the bank said.

“Branches will be strategically rolled out in key regional nodes across the country, to ensure that we have coverage in most of the major regional centres.”

“Our roll out plan will also be guided by client demand to ensure that Nedbank delivers meaningful value to communities through this strategic partnership with DHA.”

Standard Bank’s approach more conservative

Standard Bank was the only bank from the big four that told MyBroadband it did not yet have a plan to expand its eHomeAffairs branches.

Standard Bank South Africa’s head of personal and private banking, Kabelo Makeke, said the bank would review the strategy once it had fully embedded the PPP agreement and operating mode.

“We will need to validate the effectiveness of the operations over a period of six to 12 months, as well as the commercial viability of the PPP model, before we can decide on expansion to any further branches,” Makeke said.

The last bank to add the service — Discovery Bank — supports smart ID card applications and passport renewals at its headquarters in Sandton.

The bank said it planned to add four more locations with eHomeAffairs services. These will be located in the following areas:

• Century City, Western Cape
• Pretoria, Gauteng
• Sea Point, Western Cape
• Umhlanga, KwaZulu-Natal

The planned additions of 34 branches will more than double the current footprint of 30 locations to a total of 64.

The table below summarises the current number of bank branches that support eHomeAffairs, the planned additions, and total that could be operational in the near future, following the finalisation of the PPPs.

Bank	Current footprint	Planned additions	Minimum total per bank
Absa	6	12	18
Discovery Bank	1	4	5
FNB	7	18	25
Nedbank	6	Unknown	6
Standard Bank	9	0	9
Total	30	30	64