President Ruto happy over uptake of Hustler Fund, says Ksh.700M already borrowed

President William Ruto has expressed his satisfaction with the uptake of the recently unveiled Hustler Fund saying that over 3.5 million Kenyans have already enrolled on the programme.

Speaking at State House during the swearing-in of the 51 Principal Secretaries on Friday, President Ruto lauded Kenyans for positively embracing the programme saying he was certain of its economic transformative capability.

“Two days ago I did launch one of our signature programmes the financial inclusion fund called the Hustler Fund. I am happy that by 7 am today, we already had 3.5 million people on that platform and Ksh. 700 million had been borrowed on the platform,” he said.

“I am also happy that we are seeing the trend of repayment even as Kenyans borrow on that platform. This is phenomenal and we are starting the journey as a country to a single-digit credit regime that will ensure that citizens have access to affordable credit so that we can use it to drive the economy of our country and the progress of our nation.”

The Hustler Fund which is one of President Ruto's key campaign pledges was launched on Wednesday. It is a digital lending system that gives Kenyans access to financing at an 8 per cent pro-rated basis or a daily rate of 0.002 per cent.

Those interested are able to access loans of between Ksh.500 and a maximum of Ksh.50,000 individually by dialling a USSD code *254# on their mobile devices from any of the telcos; Safaricom, Airtel and Telcom.

When the customer borrows, the approved loan will be disbursed to their mobile money account where out of the total approved loan amount, 95% shall be deposited to the mobile money wallet.

The remaining 5% shall be deposited to the savings account scheme of the Hustler Fund.

The savings scheme will split savings into 70% long-term and 30% short-term savings, such that 70% of the 5% will go into long-term (Pension) and 30% of the 5% will go into short-term.