Currency and formatting
- Currency
- Lesotho Loti (LSL)
- Symbol
- L — placed before the amount
- Decimal places
- 2
- Formatted example
- L123,456.78
- Thousands separator
- ,
- Decimal separator
- .
- Digit grouping
- threes (3)
- Live rate
- No central-bank source publishes LSL yet
Tax
- 0% — basic foods
- 10% — electricity
Payment methods in Lesotho
Roughly ordered by real-world use — not by what a card processor would prefer you offer.
- 01 card
- 02 mpesa
- 03 ecocash
- 04 bank transfer
- 05 cash on delivery
Card schemes that work domestically: visa, mastercard. 3-D Secure is not standard; strong customer authentication is not legally mandated.
Locale
- Primary
- en-LS
- Also used
- st-LS
- Official languages
- Southern Sotho, English
- Direction
- left-to-right
- Date format
- DD/MM/YYYY
- Measurement
- metric
- GDPR applies
- no
Phone numbers
- Calling code
- +266
- Mobile format
- +266 5XXX XXXX
- Digits
- 8
Lesotho: common questions
What currency does Lesotho use?
Lesotho uses the Lesotho Loti (LSL), symbol L. It uses 2 decimal places, formatted as L123,456.78.
How many decimal places does LSL have?
LSL has 2 decimal places. Charging with the wrong number of minor units is a 100× error, so this is worth getting right.
What is the VAT rate in Lesotho?
The standard VAT rate in Lesotho is 15.00%. Prices are displayed tax-inclusive.
What payment methods are used in Lesotho?
The methods that matter in Lesotho, in rough order of use: card, mpesa, ecocash, bank transfer, cash on delivery.
What is the dialling code for Lesotho?
Lesotho's country calling code is +266. Mobile numbers are formatted +266 5XXX XXXX (8 digits after the country code).
API_
Get this from the API instead
Everything on this page is one call away — plus live FX, fraud signals and the visitor's own detected country.
curl "https://api.localesense.com/v1/countries/LS" \
-H "Authorization: Bearer ls_live_..."
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