Contrary to KHRC, Hustler Fund is a roaring success

President William Ruto during first anniversary celebrations of Hustler Fund in Nairobi. [ELLY OKWARE/PCS]

The recent report by the Kenya Human Rights Commission's (KHRC) describing the Hustler Fund as a politically expedient but economically disastrous initiative that has failed to deliver on its promises of financial empowerment for low-income Kenyans lacks facts. The report, 'Failing the Hustlers', claims the Hustler Fund is structurally unsound, economically unsustainable, and politically manipulated, and recommends that the government scrap it entirely.

Launched in November 2022 with a startup capital of Sh50 billion, the Hustler Fund has proved to be a game-changer for the Kenya Kwanza regime's Bottom-Up Economic Transformation Agenda. It has boosted investments in agriculture, MSMEs, healthcare and housing, among others, by offering affordable credit to Kenyans locked out of the formal financial system.