Our History

Nedbank Lesotho Limited, is subsidiary of the Nedbank Group (formerly known as the Nedcor Group), a South African banking group that is listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. The Nedbank Group consists of different clusters. Nedbank Lesotho Limited falls under the Nedbank Corporate cluster, in the ivision of Nedbank Africa.  The head office is based in Maseru, along Kingsway road. The bank currently operates 10 branches in: Maseru, Berea, Mafeteng, Mohale’s Hoek, Maputsoe, Hlotse, Butha-Buthe and Roma.

Nedbank Lesotho Limited traces its history back to Standard Bank of South Africa (SBSA), which was set up in 1904.  In 1908, an agency was established in Ladybrand to cater for the needs of all businesses operating in and near Ladybrand. After Ladybrand was made a fully-fledged branch, an agency was opened in Maseru, which later evolved into a fully-fledged branch too.

In 1947, Maseru started operating as a full-fledged branch, and later established mobile agencies to Morija, Roma, Mapoteng, Teya-teyaneng, Butha-Buthe and Leribe. A branch was opened in Mohale’s Hoek, with agencies in Mafeteng and Quthing to cater for the Southern regions, as the SBSA agency that had been opened in Qacha’s Nek by Matatiele branch was closed. In 1971, the Leribe agency, at Hlotse at the time, became a fully-fledged branch and ran Butha-Buthe as its agency. With the opening of Maputsoe as the main branch in 1973, the Hlotse office was down-graded to agency status. 

Maseru subsequently closed all its agencies, Mohale’s Hoek closed Quthing agency, and Maputsoe closed Butha-Buthe and ultimately Hlotse agency. Towards the end of 1996, only Maseru, Maputsoe, and Mohale’s Hoek were operating as full branches, with Mafeteng Agency being run by Mohale’s Hoek. In 2003, Mafeteng was upgraded to a full branch.

When Standard Bank Limited in the UK withdrew from South Africa in the early seventies, the Lesotho operation became a subsidiary of the UK Bank, and with the merger of Standard and Chartered Banks to form Standard Chartered Bank, the Lesotho operation assumed the same name. In Southern Africa Standard Chartered Bank had subsidiaries in; Swaziland, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Botswana, and Lesotho.

The Africa subsidiaries of Standard Chartered Bank were later changed to Standard Chartered Bank Africa Plc, and the Lesotho operation converted to Standard Chartered Bank (Lesotho) Limited when it was locally incorporated.

The first general meeting was held on 2 January 1997 signalling a new era, an era of the acquisition of the business in Lesotho and the official opening of Nedbank (Lesotho) Limited, which was inaugurated and established in Lesotho on 1 January 1997, having bought the then Standard Chartered Bank (Lesotho) Limited.

With the opening of Nedbank Lesotho Limited, Mr. Claude Pearce was appointed as the first Managing Director whose term of office came to an end on 31 December 1997. He was then succeeded by the late Mr. David George Watts. Mr. Watts’s successor was Mr. Phillip Opperman.  Mr. James Matthews then acted for five months before Mr. Kevin Reid took his place as the Managing Director from February 2005.

It was during Mr. Reid’s tenure in office that the bank celebrated 10 years of operating in Lesotho on 1 January 2007. Mr. Reid was succeeded by Mr. Lazarus Murahwa in August 2007 until March 2013. Mr. Fusi Notoane held the fort for 8-months before the current Managing Director Mr. P. J. Bouwer was appointed in November 2013.

Some of the products and services that Nedbank Lesotho been first to introduce in the market include the following:

• First bank to launch Internet Banking in Lesotho.
• First bank to launch a fully managed local credit card
• First bank to launch the first low-cost EMV and PCI - certified fully mobile point-of-sale (POS) solution designed for business i.e. Nedbank PocketPOS™
• First and still only bank to offer Cash Online solution for corporate clients
• Financed the first mall in Lesotho namely the famous Pioneer Mall
• First bank to introduce Sunday opening times i.e. the Pioneer Mall branchFirst corporate sponsor of the first local golf tournament in Lesotho, the Nedbank Mohokare Golf Classic.