President William Ruto during Madaraka Day celebrations on Thursday launched the second phase of the Hustler Fund, The Hustler Fund for Groups. The fund targets small investment groups (Chamas) and SACCOs. The Hustler Fund Initiative is one of the President’s flagship projects he promised during his election campaign last year. The product launched mainly focuses on SMEs, small groups, women groups, youth groups, and Chamas.
While addressing Kenya’s 60 years independence anniversary in Embu, Ruto said the new solution targets chamas and SACCOs. Generally, it aims to boost members’ businesses and, in turn, improve their living standards.
Since the inception of the first phase of the Hustler fund, The President noted that a drastic improvement in the digital economy had been noticed. Safaricom reported close to 2 million new subscribers due to the fund.
Hustler Fund Phase 2
In the second Phase of the Hustler fund, the government intends to offer funds to chamas and Saccos. This is in an effort to overcome exclusion and barriers to participating in credit savings. This is with an aim to include all Kenyans in the entrepreneurial revolution.
The decision to launch the second phase of the Hustler fund was mainly driven by the observed success of the first phase, which featured the personal loan product.
The announcement came barely a day after Small and Micro Enterprise (SME) Cabinet Secretary Simon Chelugui explained that the Hustler fund group loan would rely on the credit score of members.
Speaking earlier in the week during the just concluded Pre Madaraka Day Embu Expo, Chelugui said Kenyans should form 10-member groups using their mobile phones to access the funds.
Chelugui stated that they would assess the investment group. This is to establish if any of the members had defaulted in the initial Hustler Fund.
He encouraged Kenyans to empower themselves by using the various affordable credit products offered by Kenya’s Kwanza government.
He said loans being given in this phase of the hustler program range from Sh50,000 as the minimum amount. However, this may grow up to Sh1 million.
The aim of the group loan is to help address the challenge where Chamas face barriers when it comes to access to credit, savings, social security, health insurance, and other socioeconomic amenities. Therefore, the Hustler Fund for groups will provide low-interest loans to members of savings and credit cooperatives (Saccos) across the country.
The president will also relaunch the Women Enterprise Fund, a government initiative that provides women entrepreneurs with affordable credit and business support services.
The Cabinet Secretary of Cooperatives and MSMEs, CS Simon Chelugui, stated that Saccos will use the hustler fund to lend to groups that have registered or opened accounts with the Saccos.
How to apply:
To apply for the Hustler Fund, follow these steps:
- Dial the USSD code *254# on your mobile phone. Also, you can access the mobile application provided by your mobile money service provider.
- From the menu options, select the loan request option to view the loan limit, interest rate, and loan tenure.
- Enter the desired loan amount and press OK to proceed.
- Review and confirm the loan details displayed on the screen to continue.
- Enter your Mobile Money PIN when prompted for authentication.
- Upon successful application, you will receive SMS notifications confirming the loan allocation and providing relevant loan information.
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Categorised in: General
This post was written by Cynthia Njoki
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