Dr Moeketsi Majoro joined the Ministry of Finance in July 2000, having taken unpaid leave from the National University of Lesotho (NUL). Before this, he was a lecturer in Economics in the Department of Economics at NUL, where he taught economic theory, quantitative methods, and environmental economics. He also supervised many graduate and undergraduate theses in economics.

He took active part in the development of the Collaborate Masters in Economics Programme for 21 English speaking African countries under the African Economic Research Consortium (AERC) and also in the development of NUL’s own Masters’ programme in Economics, which commenced under his direction as Head of Department.

He has also served as a non-executive director in many corporations in the financial, hospitality, capacity building and education sectors and has chaired some of these institutions. He is a member of the Southern African Institute of Directors (IOD).

Dr Majoro began his professional career as a researcher in the Department of Research of the Ministry of Agriculture in April 1984. He proceeded to Washington State University (WSU) in Pullman Washington, USA, to undertake studies towards a Masters’ Programme in Agricultural Economics in August 1985. He used an input-output model to estimate the impacts of a debt over-extension on farming enterprises. In August 1987, he won a teaching assistantship at WSU and began a Ph.D programme in Natural Resources Economics that would last just over 3 years. A year later in August 1988, he won a research assistantship under the expert guidance of Professor Norman Whittlesey of WSU. His Ph.D research, which was commissioned by the Bonneville Power Administration, involved the estimation of power elasticities for farmers in the Pacific Northwest using linear programming as an estimation methodology.

Before joining the Ministry, Dr Majoro worked as a consultant in the field of Economics and has authored many consultancy reports.

He joined the Ministry of Finance as Director to set up the Fiscal Analysis and Policy Unit from July 2000 to December 2003, when he was appointed Principal Secretary in the merged Ministry of Finance and Development Planning. Here he is credited with setting up and running the Unit that today increasingly influences fiscal and macroeconomic policy in Lesotho. As a Principal Secretary, he is part of a team under the guidance of Honourable Minister Thahane that is radically transforming Lesotho’s public financial management through new systems in modernised budgeting, procurement, accounting in reporting, and auditing as well as through an extensive human development programme that includes on-the-job and professional training.

He realised the merger of the two former ministries of finance and of planning and has run the newly formed Ministry of Finance and Development Planning as a single integrated ministry that leads economic, planning, and public financial management, through a restructuring programme that has delegated authority to senior managers and demanded accountability. The new ministry is improving its support to ministries while also demanding compliance with the existing regulatory environment.

He has acted in leadership and management capacities from the beginning of his working life and has chaired regional (Southern African Development Community and Southern African Customs Union) and international (Africa, Caribbean, and Pacific, Africa Group 1 Constituency of the International Monetary Fund) meetings. He has negotiated several financing agreements with multi-lateral financial institutions. He also has extensive experience with interacting with many international institutions including the Bretton Woods Institutions, the Commonwealth, and Governments.

Dr Majoro was born in Tsikoane, Leribe and received most of his primary education at Saint Paul Primary School. The last two years of primary education were completed at Makhoa Primary School, still in the Leribe district where his mother taught. His secondary education took place at Sacred Heart High School and ended in 1979. He began university studies in August 1980 and completed BA Economics in April 1984.