Kenya’s President William Ruto on Wednesday, November 30, officially unveiled the hustler fund whose main objective is to offer cheap loans to small businesses.
Speaking during the launch at Green Park Terminus in Nairobi, the president said the initiative will give loan defaulters who had been barred from accessing credit, a chance to start afresh.
The loan limits for Hustler Fund will be a minimum of KSh 500 up to a maximum that will be determined by the borrower’s credit score and capped at KSh 50,000.
“This is a momentous occasion that today we have a product that does not need an application, guarantee, or approval by a committee. It just needs a citizen, his phone or her phone, and a track record and they can borrow as much as they want so long as they keep to a track record,” President Ruto said.
However, a section of Azimio la Umoja One Kenya Coalition Party poked holes in the hustler fund that had been earlier launched.
The leaders led by Embakasi East MP Babu Owino instead urged the President to combine the hustler fund with the KSh 6k social protection kitty promised by former Prime Minister Raila Odinga.
The vocal legislator who was addressing journalists in Nairobi said KSh 500 was just a drop in the ocean adding that the loan could not help hustlers put up serious businesses that would generate enough income.
“In the Azimio manifesto, we did put aside KSh 6,000 in social protection. Kenyans should have earned this money by now because we had budgeted for this money and left it in the Treasury,
“Combine this money then on a minimum, give every hustler a minimum of KSh100,000,” Owino said.
During the August 9, presidential campaign, William Ruto promised to help ordinary Kenyans have easy access to affordable credit for their businesses.
