For informal traders and RSL officers
Keep your business records in a chat. File your tax return in a minute.
Khoebo helps traders in Lesotho log sales by message, see what their business earns each week, and file a pre-filled return. RSL officers get a short list of who to follow up, with the reasons written out.
Khoebo
Records and tax assistant
This week
- Money in
- M1,840
- Money out
- M1,120
- Profit
- about M720
A nil return doesn't always mean someone is hiding income. Many traders are seasonal, or have closed, or just never kept records. Khoebo helps traders keep those records, and helps RSL tell the difference.
How it works for traders
Log a sale
Send a short message or voice note, like 'sold 350 today'.
See your week
Get money in, money out and profit every Sunday.
Get a reminder
A message before each due date, with your estimated tax.
File in a minute
Your return is filled in from your records. You check it and confirm.
For RSL officers
Every trader is placed in one of four actions. Each one shows the evidence behind it, and the officer always makes the final call.
- Officer follow-up
Strong, repeated evidence of trading well above what was declared.
- Human review
Some evidence, but thin or mixed. An officer checks before any visit.
- Automated check-in
Nil returns and no sign of trading. A friendly message asks if the business is still running.
- No action
Declarations match the evidence, or nil months match months with no activity.
TRD-0167
General dealer / spaza · Mafeteng
Why this action
- Supplier e-invoices show M74,430 of stock bought May to Oct 2026.
- Mobile money wallet inflows above M1,000 total M61,390 over the same months.
- Declared turnover for the period: M0 (5 nil returns).
- Trading evidence in 6 of 6 months; declared turnover is 0% of the minimum the evidence suggests.
- Declared (6 months)
- M0
- Evidence minimum
- M74,430
- Months with evidence
- 6 of 6
Built for Lesotho
Ready for WhatsApp
The prototype runs in the browser. In a pilot, the same assistant runs on WhatsApp, with SMS for basic phones.
Light on data
Small pages and short messages that work on a weak connection.
English, with Sesotho next
It already understands common Sesotho phrases. Full Sesotho replies come with the pilot.
Records stay with the trader
RSL sees the return a trader files, not their daily sales.
Tested on simulated data
38% fewer officer cases
than following up every nil return
96% of field visits
reached a trader who really was under-declaring
48 found
undeclared traders per 300, close to the 49 found by following up every nil return
Average of 30 simulated populations of 300 traders. No real taxpayer data was used. The next step is testing on masked RSL data.
Placeholder figures until the simulation results are added.