PS Mang’eni boasts Ksh73B Hustler Fund loan portfolio amid criticism
By Arnold Ngure, August 13, 2025Principal Secretary in the State Department for Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises Development, Susan Mang’eni, says the loan portfolio for the Hustler Fund has hit Ksh73 billion despite critics maintaining that the project is not viable.
Speaking during an engagement on the ambitious project on a local TV station on Tuesday, August 12, 2025, Mang’eni stated that the project has registered success in uplifting millions of Kenyans from their predicaments.
“26 million Kenyans have signed up on Hustler Fund. This is the biggest database on credit behaviour. We have grown our loan portfolio to Ksh73 billion. The money that we have injected is Ksh14 billion,” Mang’eni said.
Increased loan limits
She equally indicated that while some Kenyans have defaulted, a significant number of people have repaid their loans promptly, thus raising their loan limits.
“For the bridge loan, which is usually for business, we have about 600,000 Kenyans who have graduated to the bridge product. We have people who started with 500, yet today, they can borrow up to Ksh150,000,” Mang’eni noted.
The Hustler Fund, a flagship project of the Kenyan government, was launched in late 2022 with a startup capital of Ksh50 billion. This initiative, championed by President William Ruto, was a central promise of his bottom-up economic model, aiming to provide affordable and accessible credit to micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) and individuals, often referred to as ‘hustlers.’
Default rates
The fund’s viability has been a subject of intense debate. While the government claims high repayment rates, some reports, including one by the Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC), suggest a significant default rate, with some estimates reaching as high as 68 per cent.
This has led to criticism that the fund is a financially unsustainable, populist project. Critics also argue that the small loan amounts are insufficient to create meaningful economic change and that the fund’s design lacks a clear legal and governance framework.
Despite the criticisms, the government continues to highlight the project’s successes, citing that the fund has disbursed billions of shillings to millions of Kenyans and mobilized billions in savings.