President William Ruto has dismissed recent criticism of the Hustler Fund, rejecting claims from opposition leaders and some experts that the initiative is experiencing high default rates.
During the Presidential Private Sector Roundtable in Nairobi County on Wednesday 6 August 2025, Ruto insisted that the fund has achieved its intended goal, benefiting over 26 million Kenyans, primarily in low-income sectors.
“In under three years, the Hustler Fund has disbursed over KSh72 billion to 26 million Kenyans, mobilized over KSh5 billion in savings, and provided vital working capital to millions of micro-entrepreneurs,” said President Ruto.
A report released on Monday, August 4, 2025, by the Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC), titled ‘Failing the Hustlers,’ cited a default rate of 68.3%, estimating that Sh340 is lost for every Sh500 disbursed. However, President Ruto dismissed these figures, stating that the repayment rate exceeds 83%.
“Those saying the Hustler Fund has a 60% default rate, the truth is that it has over an 83% repayment rate. Stop calling Kenyans serial defaulters,” Ruto said.
The president emphasized that the fund’s primary objective is to support low-income earners excluded from traditional banking systems, rejecting the notion that the Hustler Fund competes with banks.
“We rolled out the Hustler Fund to attend to micro-entrepreneurs and correct a market failure where there are people whom banks and other financial lenders cannot serve,” Ruto added.
He also criticized elites for being out of touch with the struggles of ordinary Kenyans.
“People who sit in posh hotels with air conditioning, speaking from Nairobi, don’t think KSh 500 matters to anybody because they don’t understand the hustles of small people,” he said.
The debate over the Hustler Fund’s effectiveness continues, with the government defending its impact while critics raise concerns over sustainability and repayment rates.
Hustler Fund, a key component of President Ruto’s administration under the Bottom-Up Economic Transformation Agenda (BETA) was launched on November 30 2022 with a startup capital of Sh50 billion.
