advertisement
standard bank
Facebook
X
LinkedIn
WhatsApp
Reddit

Standard Bank says it will issue Smart ID cards from April

One of the few surprise announcements in last week’s State of the Nation Address was that the Department of Home Affairs is being tasked with allowing banks and post offices to issue the new South African ID Card. The controversial smart card, which was launched last year, is currently used to authenticate holders for government services.

Yesterday Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba announced that South Africa’s Smart ID system will be up and running by April this year, and Standard Bank is the first of the private sector companies to say that it will have a pilot program for accepting applications and issuing cards up and running within that time frame.

Having a credit card-sized identity document is a huge boon to citizens, and two of the country’s biggest banks have already voiced their support for the roll-out of applications in their respective branches.

But besides for the legal and security issues that might arise from having a digital version of you on an electronically-chipped card, Standard Bank said today that it will be fully able to accommodate applications as specified by the government.

The bank will be entering into a pilot phase with staff next month, in the run up to the cards being made available to the public in April. According to the bank, its not the bank’s first rodeo with such a task, as it trialed similar technology in Mozambique.

““As we are in a pilot phase, we will be starting the process with our Commercial and Business Banking customers as well as our Prestige and Private Banking customers. The pilot will run for 6 months, followed by a roll out to all customer,” said Sibongiseni Ngundze, Head of Retail Banking at Standard Bank, in a media statement.

id-card-description
The ID card will feature a number of identifying elements.

FNB has also pledged its support to the project, but couldn’t confirm to us whether it will also be embarking on a pilot phase of if it will be ready for the April launch.

“First National Bank can confirm that a Memorandum Of Understanding has been signed with the Department of Home Affairs with regard to the processing of applications for Smart Card Identity Documents. As discussions are currently underway with the Department for the project, further queries will need to be directed to the Department of Home Affairs for their response,” Virginia Magapatona, FNB Head of Corporate Communications, said in a statement.

There are currently 70 government offices ready to accept applications if you are a first-time applicant of 16 or above, or a pensioner.

advertisement

About Author

advertisement

Related News

advertisement