Access to credit has been one of the biggest hindrances to low-income earning Kenyans striving to set up businesses.

But numerous lending institutions that have come to the rescue of what the Kenya Kwanza administration calls the Hustler nation.

President William Ruto’s government has established the Hustler Fund to address the financial needs of this segment of the population.

Policy makers in the administration believe that, if well enabled, millions of Kenyans in this bracket can tap into their potential, create opportunities, fight poverty and create wealth for their societies and the nation.

The National Treasury says the fund had disbursed Sh36.6 billion by the October last year with 7.5 million repeat customers whose overall repayment rate stood at 73 per cent. Ideally, the main aim of the fund was not to address lack of access to protected credit.

It was meant to provide cheaper debt, which has been the pain of small businesses. Kenyan traders have been operating under the weight expensive loans that eventually lead into loss of livelihoods. That why we are alarmed by the activities of some Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) dealers which are cause of untold suffering by many Kenyans.

The lenders have taken advantage of the gullibility of poor Kenyans to amass dirty profits as they drive victims to penury and eventually their graves. Their major victims are boda boda riders who have had to lose their motorbikes and other property to the lenders for failure to make their remittances on time.

What was marketed as cheap access to credit has turned out to be a cruel ripoff aided by exorbitant interest charges, hidden costs and violent recovery methods which have left many families in pain, marriages broken and children orphaned.

More than 1.2 million motorbike operators are suffering quietly in the hands of predatory financial institutions that are fleecing them through hire purchase systems.

Operators are now accusing the firms, which mostly operate online, of luring them into expensive debts in their quest to maximise their profits. In one case, a rider paid Sh237,456 for a motorbike that retails at between Sh100,000 and Sh130,000 market price.

By every measure, this expensive credit and the relevant authorities cannot afford to sit on their arms as these dealers rob Kenyans into further poverty. The government must investigate and take action against these rogue lenders.