Our Mandate

The Road Fund was established by the Lesotho Government through Legal Notice No. 179 of 1995 and regulated under the Finance (Road Fund) Regulations 2012, and is dedicated to funding maintenance of roads. The main reason for establishing the Fund, like many other countries in the world, was to shift the burden of financing maintenance of Lesotho’s road infrastructure from general taxes collected by the central government to road user fees, and to close the persistent financing gaps that characterized road maintenance prior to the establishment of the Fund.

In order to finance road infrastructure projects, revenue is collected from the following sources: road toll gate fees, all cross border fees and levies, registration, licences and clearance fees on motor vehicles,  short-term permits and special permits for motor vehicles, road maintenance levy of petrol and diesel, fines on overloaded goods vehicles, fines for road traffic offences, interest earned on deposited funds, cost share paid into the Fund by community councils for works on urban and rural community roads, any other road user charges and any sums appropriated to the Fund, including donor funding.

The Road Fund finances routine, emergency and periodic maintenance of all roads in Lesotho, road rehabilitation, road upgrading, new road works, road safety projects and any other project or matter connected with roads. The administrative costs are also catered for from the Fund’s coffers.

The Fund is managed by a Board of Directors who are appointed by the responsible Minister from the following Government Ministries and relevant sectors:

• Representative of Ministry responsible for Finance;
• Representative of Ministry responsible for Construction and Maintenance of Roads;
• Representative of the Ministry responsible for Energy;
• Representative of the Passenger Transport sector;
• Representative of the Freight Transport sector;
• Representative of the Engineering Discipline;
• Representative of the Law Society of Lesotho;
• Representative of the Consumer Organisation;
• Two other people appointed by the Minister because of their special skills; and
• Head of the Road Fund Secretariat.

The overall proprietorship of the Fund lies with the Ministry responsible for Finance. The Fund is active in SADC and African forums, being a member of the African Roads Maintenance Funds Association (ARMFA) and Sub-Sahara African Transport Project (SSATP). The purpose for its membership is to exchange knowledge with its peer organizations in other countries as well as to benchmark its processes amongst the best in the continent.