As a show of Hustler Fund’s popularity, its uptake has crossed 19 billion in three months.

The kitty was created by the Kenya Kwanza administration as one of the pillars to buttress the ‘Bottom Up’ agenda that was touted by President Ruto as a means to uplift small scale traders by availing cheap credit to them.

Cooperatives and Micro and Small Enterprises Cabinet Secretary Simon Chelugui made the disclosures, adding that borrowers have repaid Sh10.605 billion as of Monday midday

The Fund, which was launched on 30th November last year started by giving access to credit between 500 and 50,000. The second phase is scheduled to start in march where borrowers will have an increased limit of upto 2.5 million

The second phase which will also be available to SACCOs will have lending rates that will rival most commercial banks for customers as most banks consider small scale traders to be risky borrowers

Besides credit, the fund also has a built-in savings component targeting Kenyans outside formal employment, supported by partial contributions from the State where taxpayers will match Sh1 for every Sh2 contributed, capped at Sh3,000 annually.