Remittance corridor · World Bank RPW · 2025Q3
South Africa → Lesotho
Average cost sits in the upper fleet tercile at 11.2% on this South Africa → Lesotho route - senders pay more than typical RPW-tracked corridors.
- 11.2%
- Average cost
- 0.0%
- Cheapest · ABSA
- 7
- Providers tracked
How the 11.2% average cost breaks down
World Bank RPW splits total remittance cost into the provider's transaction fee and the exchange-rate margin applied to the transfer. Same 2025Q3 figures as the detail table below.
Corridor-cost tercile vs fleet
South Africa → Lesotho posts 11.2% average cost, above the fleet upper tercile (~6.6%), ranking #304 of 348. Cheapest tracked floor: 0.0% via ABSA.
- #304 of 348
- cheapest-cost corpus rank
- 11.2%
- average cost of a $200 transfer
- +4.0pp
- vs the 7.3% average of 348 corridors
- +8.2pp
- gap to the UN 3% target
Compared against the 348 corridors in the 2025Q3 release, not a generic headline figure.
Based on average cost, delivery speed, FX margin, provider competition, and cost trend from World Bank Remittance Prices Worldwide data, benchmarked against all 348 tracked corridors - not a quote or a prediction of what you will pay.
What changed
World Bank RPW release record: 2025Q1 to 2025Q3
- Average transfer cost changed from 11.11% to 11.25% (+0.14 percentage points).
- Lowest observed transfer cost changed from 1.82% to 0.00% (-1.82 percentage points).
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Where this corridor sits by provider panel size
South Africa → Lesotho has 7 World Bank RPW providers among 377 tracked corridors (inventory signal, not a cost-quality ranking). Orthogonal to the cost comparison below.
South Africa → Lesotho vs all corridors by provider count
Where this corridor's RPW provider panel sits among every tracked route
7 225th of 377 higher than 152 of 377 corridors
Corridors, banded by RPW provider inventory
Each bar is a band; taller bars hold more corridors. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count and share, and where it sits relative to this entry.
Source World Bank Remittance Prices Worldwide · 2026-08-10
How South Africa → Lesotho compares
Average cost of a $200 transfer, percent, lower is cheaper
11.25% average - 8.2pp above target
Cost trend: South Africa → Lesotho
Average and cheapest cost of a $200 transfer over time, percent
Sending Country
Receiving Country
Nearby Corridors from South Africa
South Africa is one of the most connected sending markets in our data, with 12 tracked outbound corridors. The 8 below span the widest cost range, from the cheapest to send anywhere from South Africa through to the most expensive.
World Bank RPW fee spread
Release 2025Q3 ZA→LS
11.2% avg · 0.0% floor · 11.25pp spread on $200
- AVG 11.2%
- CHEAP 0.0%
- SPREAD 11.25pp
- SDG +8.3pp
- RANK #304 of 348
- REL 2025Q3
- PANEL 7
Cross-sender cost peers
Fee spread manifest for South Africa → Lesotho: entity-varying RPW stamps plus cross-sender ABS(avg_cost) peers from the current release. Compare corridors side-by-side →
High transfer cost on South Africa → Lesotho
World Bank RPW prices South Africa → Lesotho at 11.25% (2025Q3) - above the fleet upper tercile (~6.6%). Senders here pay more than typical tracked corridors, 4.8 pp above the ~6.4% global average.
That cheapest figure comes from the World Bank's mystery-shopping survey: trained researchers pose as customers and obtain real quotes for a standardized $200 transfer, across the 7 banks, money transfer operators, post offices and mobile-money providers RPW tracks on this corridor. It is a snapshot from that survey quarter, not a live guarantee -- confirm the current rate directly with the provider before sending.
Costs on this route have stayed essentially flat, moving 0.14 percentage points over the tracked period, unusual stability against the broader downward trend seen on most corridors. It sits 8.2 pp above the UN SDG 10.c 3% target.
South Africa → Lesotho Long-Track Cost Profile
This is a high-depth World Bank RPW corridor (54 quarterly average-cost readings) - enough history to measure how concentrated the cost path has been, not just the latest quarter. Peak average cost on record was 25.3% in 2023Q1; the trough was 7.1% in 2020Q2. That 18.17pp peak-to-trough span is the multi-year envelope thin-history corridors cannot show.
Across the full 54-quarter panel, 0 readings (0.0% share) landed at or under the UN SDG 3% target. Population standard deviation of the average-cost series is 3.571pp - a wide swing band that rewards checking the current quarter. From 2024Q2 to 2025Q3, the average cost fell 3.54pp (14.8% → 11.2%).
Among the 12 outbound corridors tracked from South Africa, 2 currently post a lower average cost than this route and 10 post a higher one (this corridor sits at 11.2%). That peer-rank read is only honest once the sender book is deep enough - sparse zero-history routes skip it because sibling counts alone do not make a long RPW track record.
About South Africa → Lesotho data
PlainRemit compares international money-transfer costs across tracked corridors so you can see which routes and providers charge the least before you send money abroad. This corridor's figures are computed directly from the World Bank Remittance Prices Worldwide (RPW) quarterly survey, a mystery-shopping panel of actual transfer quotes for a standardized $200 transfer.
Average 11.25%; cheapest observed 0.00% via ABSA; 7 providers tracked across 54 RPW quarters; vintage 2026-08-10.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does it cost to send money from South Africa to Lesotho?
Average 11.25% of the transfer amount (World Bank RPW, 2025Q3) - upper fleet tercile (above ~6.6%). Cheapest observed: 0.00% via ABSA.
What is the cheapest way to send money from South Africa to Lesotho?
Lowest RPW survey quote on this corridor: 0.00% (ABSA). 7 providers tracked.
Is the South Africa to Lesotho corridor meeting the UN SDG cost target?
Not yet: 11.2% is 8.2pp above the UN SDG 10.c 3% target and in the upper fleet cost tercile.
Where does South Africa → Lesotho sit among tracked remittance corridors?
According to World Bank Remittance Prices Worldwide average cost among 348 tracked corridors on PlainRemit, South Africa → Lesotho ranks #304 of 348 (cheapest = #1). Ordinal uses latest_avg_cost ASC matching /rankings/cheapest. See /methodology#corpus-placement.
Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.