The creation of the Hustler Fund was President William Ruto’s main campaign promise and as soon as he got into Office, he created the fund with a Ksh 50 billion allocation meant for personal loans, and micro, small and medium enterprises.
The President officially launched the fund earlier today in partnership with the three major telcos in the country – Safaricom, Telkom and Airtel.
The Hustler Fund is aimed to make credit accessible in reference to the current predatory lending practices that denied borrowers access to funds for personal use and to grow their businesses.
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The fund is now available to small businesses on digital platforms at affordable rates to individuals and through chamas, groups, SACCOs and cooperatives.
The Hustler fund has four products – credit, savings, pensions and investments.
It’s worth noting that borrowers on this platform will also participate in a short-term savings plan and long-term pensions program. Every saving made by borrowers on this platform will be merged by the government of Kenya on a 2:1 ratio to a level to be determined by the program which means that the government will add 1 shilling to every 2 shillings saved.
Simon Chelugui, Cabinet Secretary for Co-operatives and SMEs Development said that a call centre will be established to deal with issues that will be raised as the fund rolls out to borrowers.
As for now, the Husler Fund is available for personal loans as loans for MSMEs will be available starting February next year. While there are no processing fees for loans provided by the Hustler Fund, you will get 95% of the loan with the 5% going into a personal savings scheme that will be split into 70% long-term and 30% short-term savings.
Loan repayments can be made from the mobile money account.
How To Register for the Hustler Fund
The Hustler’s Fund is available on USSD and on the respective telco apps such as the Mpesa app, T-Kash App and Airtel Money App.
To register you can use both with the code being *254# on all networks. You will be prompted to accept the terms and conditions and then requested to enter your mobile money PIN such as your MPESA Pin if you use a Safaricom line.
Once you complete, you’ll wait for confirmation with a text sent to the mobile number you have registered for the fund alerting you if you have successfully been registered. You will then be given a borrowing limit. The waiting period can range from 30 minutes to 2 hours.
You will also know via text if you weren’t successful with your registration.
The funds are offered with an 8% interest rate per annum. If you default on repaying your loan, you won’t be listed on the CRB and you can reborrow. The loans can be prepared at once or in instalments.
There is no need to manually fill up forms and have third-party gurantors to access the Hustler Fund.
Personal loans range from Ksh 500 to Ksh 50,000 while loans for Chamas start at Ksh 50,000 to Ksh 250,000 and groups have a Ksh 10 million limit.
To be eligible, you’ll have to be:
- 18 years old
- A permanent Kenyan resident
- Belong to duly registered Chamas, SACCOS
The loans need to be prepared within 14 days and the interest rate goes up to 9.5% per annum after 15 more days without repaying. The fund will freeze your account if go 30 days without paying your loan.
Accessing the Hustler Fund on the MPESA APP
Simply open the MPESA App and on the bottom navigation tab, tap on the Services icon and tap the Finance icon on the top right corner of the app. The Hustler Fun icon will be among the first mini-programs shown.
Tap on it to register and wait to see if your registration is successful.
