Hustler Fund puts capital in the hands of 26 million Kenyans

For decades, the Kenyan at the bottom of the pyramid — the mama mboga, the boda boda rider, the small trader — could not borrow from a bank. No collateral, no payslip, no credit history. The only option was a shylock or a predatory digital lender charging punitive rates.

The Hustler Fund changed that equation. Launched on 30 November 2022 as the first flagship delivery of the Bottom-Up Economic Transformation Agenda, it offers instant mobile credit at 8% per annum with no collateral and no paperwork.

What has been delivered

• More than Sh82 billion disbursed across personal and group products.
• Over 26 million Kenyans have accessed the facility.
• Borrowers have accumulated billions in forced savings, with 5% of every loan going into a savings pot.
• Hundreds of thousands of chamas and groups have accessed the group lending window.
• Millions of Kenyans now have a formal digital credit score for the first time in their lives — the on-ramp to bigger, cheaper credit.

This is what Bottom-Up means in practice: not a handout, but access to capital for people the old economy ignored.