President William Ruto now claims that the Hustler Fund has disbursed loans worth nearly Ksh40 billion to Kenyans, despite only allocating Ksh12 billion to the loan plan.
At the Hustler Fund’s one-year anniversary party at the Railway Club grounds in Nairobi on Thursday, November 30, 2023, Ruto said that the money the government put into the funding project had allowed them to give money to 90 million Kenyans.
He also said that 7.7 million people who have signed up for the loan plan are actually taking money and paying it back.
“Hio billioni 12 tumetumia kama serikali, tumekopesha zaidi ya shilingi billioni 39.5.” We were able to lend almost 40 billion shillings out of the 12 billion shillings we had. Because Kenyans pay back what they take, we were able to help 90 million Kenyans.
“Many millionaires and low-income people are enthusiastic members. “Please tell me where they would be without the Hustler Fund,” he said.
At the same time, Ruto said that the project that started last year had helped 7 million Kenyans who had bad information on the Credit Reference Bureau (CRB).
Ruto praised the loan plan and stated that 2.2 million active Hustler Fund users are benefiting from it.
Today, we fixed the credit of 7 million Kenyans who were found guilty in the CRB ecosystem and ensured their removal from CRB. 2.2 million Kenyans whose credit was fixed by the CRB today are currently borrowing money from the Hustler Fund.
“Kumaanisha kwamba, we were right that these people had their voices unheard; it means they were criticised not because of anything they had done but because of financial difficulty,” Ruto said.
There have also been savings of Ksh2 billion by Kenyans in the loan plan since it began, the president said.
He praised the plan and said that it had taught Kenyans to save money.
“Kwa iyo 5% ya savings ya kila Mkenya, now we have Ksh2 billion as a savings component of the Hustler Fund,” Ruto stated.