Home Affairs hikes prices by up to 6,500% for ID verification

Home Affairs plans to roll out an upgraded National Population Register (NPR) verification service, which will cost users significantly more.

On Tuesday, 24 May 2025, the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) announced that it will roll out this upgraded NPR verification service to all companies and government users from 1 July 2025.

Since 2013, the department has provided third parties with this online verification service (OVS), connecting them to the NPR. 

This allows registered third-party users to check their clients’ identities and other biographical information against the DHAs’ database.

However, the department explained that, since the OVS’s rollout more than a decade ago, the demands on the service have far outstripped the capacity at which it was initially designed. 

Since 2013, the system has not been substantially upgraded, while demand and the costs of maintaining the infrastructure have increased every year.

The DHA explained that this upgrade stasis and the increased demands placed on the OVS have seen some users routinely experience a failure rate in excess of 50% on verification checks against the NPR.

“Even in the case of successful verifications, response times often take hours, thereby defeating the purpose of real-time verification,” the department said. 

“Both of these factors are directly undermining services that require such verifications, including through the OVS and at Home Affairs offices.”

The DHA said it has also seen cases of exorbitant over-use by some institutions owing to the “unsustainably low prices” the department charged for this service.

It explained that underinvestment and overloading of the OVS are key factors behind the challenge of having “offline systems” at frontline offices. 

In addition, an unreliable NPR directly threatens national security as it undermines the state’s ability to verify identities.

“The under-pricing of this service – with fees as low as R0.15 per verification – has deprived the state of the resources required to maintain and enhance the NPR,” the DHA said.

In addition, the department said certain private sector users have relied on this artificially low price to inflate their corporate profits at the expense of the quality of services received by the public.

This is why the DHA will increase the pricing for this service when it rolls out the upgraded system in July.

Significantly higher pricing

The DHA will roll out its new OVS to all users with increased pricing effective 1 July 2025.

The department explained that the upgraded OVS is a sleek, modern system that delivers what it was designed to do. It performs in real-time, and the failure rate has been reduced to below 1%.

For the first time, the new system will also introduce an option for users to do “non-live batch verifications” during off-peak hours at a significantly lower fee than real-time verifications. 

The DHA explained that this feature offers a cost-effective alternative to real-time verifications and incentivises users to stop overloading the OVS’s live queue.

It said this will also reduce the “system offline” challenge often encountered at frontline Home Affairs offices.

The increased fees for verifications, from around R0.15 previously, are as follows: 

• Single real-time verification check – R10 per transaction 
• Non-live batch verifications – R1 per verification field request

It should be noted that other government departments will not be charged for using this service.

“This cost is appropriate for the service provided and is not unreasonable when viewed against the costs charged to clients of the organisations utilising the OVS,” the department said. 

Home Affairs Minister Leon Schreiber said this was a matter of national security as every responsible state must take the necessary steps to ensure a functional population register. 

He added that a healthy NPR is a prerequisite for a functional Digital ID, which forms part of his department’s strategic plan for the next five years.

Schreiber explained that the NPR must become the central database against which identities are verified as Home Affairs becomes a digital-first department.

“This investment in the NPR is an investment in national security, in financial inclusion, and in the value of our cherished South African identity that will pay off handsomely for our country,” Schreiber said.

Price hikes slammed

Following the DHA’s increased pricing announcement, TymeBank issued a strongly worded open letter to the Home Affairs Minister.

The bank called on the department to urgently reverse its decision to implement a 6,500% increase in identity verification fees. 

The bank describes the move as a “crippling” blow to financial inclusion and digital progress in South Africa.

The bank explained that the Department of Home Affairs’ identity verification services are critical in onboarding customers, ensuring anti-money laundering compliance, and expanding financial services to excluded populations.

Tyme Group CEO and co-founder Coenraad Jonker warned that the proposed pricing structure will make it commercially unviable to serve low-income South Africans, such as social grant recipients and informal workers.

“This is not just a policy shift – it’s a regressive tax on the most vulnerable South Africans,” Jonker said. 

“It undermines the progress we’ve made toward digital inclusion, weakens the financial sector’s ability to comply with anti-money laundering laws, and risks reversing efforts to exit the FATF greylist.”

TymeBank called on national leadership – including the President, the Finance Minister, and the Reserve Bank Governor – to intervene. 

The bank urged the DHA to halt implementation of the fee increase and re-engage with industry stakeholders to find a more transparent and sustainable path forward. 

However, Jonker emphasised that TymeBank is not opposing system upgrades or cost recovery. 

“We are calling for a phased, performance-linked model that enables planning and protects financial access for underserved communities,” he said. 

“This decision puts the Department on the wrong side of history. Digital transformation should open doors, not close them.”