Lesotho
The Central Bank of Lesotho, which regulates banks, insurers and capital markets, has no Islamic finance law, rule or licensee on its website, and no Islamic products were found on the home pages of the four licensed banks named in its 2022 supervision report, as of 14 November 2026.
Five checks
Banking rulesNot found
The Financial Institutions Act, 2012 and the banking regulations published by the Central Bank of Lesotho do not mention Islamic banking. A search of the Central Bank's website for 'islamic' and 'shariah' returned no results.
- “Financial Institutions Act, 2012”
Central Bank of Lesotho · 2012-02-27 - “0 results found for: islamic”
Central Bank of Lesotho · 2026-11-14
Licensed banks and windowsNot found
- “the number of licensed commercial banks remained at four (4)”
Central Bank of Lesotho · 2022 - “0 results found for: islamic”
Central Bank of Lesotho · 2026-11-14
Sukuk issuedNot found
- “0 results found for: sukuk”
Central Bank of Lesotho · 2026-11-14
Takaful (non-interest insurance)Not found
The Insurance Act, 2014 and the insurance regulations on the Central Bank of Lesotho website do not mention takaful. A site search for 'takaful' returned no results.
- “Insurance Act, 2014”
Central Bank of Lesotho · 2014-09-26 - “0 results found for: takaful”
Central Bank of Lesotho · 2026-11-14
Capital market rulesNot found
The capital markets and collective investment scheme regulations (including 2023 and 2024 amendments) on the Central Bank of Lesotho website do not mention Islamic or Shari'ah products.
- “Central Bank (Capital Markets) (Amendment) Regulations, 2024”
Central Bank of Lesotho · 2024-06-25
Still open
Points we could not confirm at source yet.
- The ICD-LSEG Islamic Finance Development Report 2025 says Lesotho was added to its indicator in 2025. The report gives no detail, and no Lesotho activity was found to explain it.
Where we searched
- Central Bank of Lesotho (banking, insurance and capital markets regulator): site search for islamic, takaful, shariah, sukuk ('0 results found' each)
- Central Bank of Lesotho legislation page: all 71 linked PDFs downloaded and grepped (Financial Institutions Act 2012 and amendments to 2023, banking regulations, Insurance Act 2014 and regulations to 2024, Capital Markets and CIS regulations to 2024, Pension Funds Act 2019): no Islamic, Shari'ah, takaful or sukuk terms. A few older scanned PDFs (CBL Act 2000, Credit Reporting Act 2011) had no extractable text
- 2022 CBL Supervision Annual Report: no Islamic finance terms; four licensed commercial banks
- Bank own sites: FNB Lesotho (fnb.co.ls; Islamic URL paths return an error page), Standard Lesotho Bank, Nedbank Lesotho, Lesotho PostBank homepages: no Islamic products
- Ministry of Finance: not searched