Principal Secretary in the State Department for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development, Susan Mang’eni, has warned that the government has sight of all defaulters of the Hustler Fund.

Speaking during an engagement on the ambitious project on a local TV station on Tuesday, August 12, 2025, Mang’eni also said that the defaulters were missing out on an opportunity to grow their loan limits.

“We have sight of all our 26 million beneficiaries, and they are all rated. We crystallized into a Hustler Fund behavioural rating system which grades borrowers from A1 to C3; A being excellent and C being very poor requiring improvement,” Mang’eni said.

We know where you are

“I am not worried about defaults because we know where you are, and you are blocking yourself from an opportunity.”

The PS observed that the default rate spiked during the first two months of the launch of the fund due to political sentiments at the time.

Among those who had urged Kenyans to regard the fund as a grant in 2023 was Cooperatives Cabinet Secretary Wycliffe Oparanya, who has since changed his tune, calling for prompt repayment of the loan.

New sentiments

Responding to questions at the Senate on May 14, 2025, Oparanya said that while he might have regarded the fund as a grant during his days as the ODM deputy party leader, he is in a new boat now.

“I never heard of Hustler Fund being a grant. I was only in the same boat with you, Senator Sifuna, when we were saying that this money would not be paid. I’m in a different boat now,’’ Oparanya said.

“I’m saying that Kenyans who have borrowed this money to pay because I feel that this money is a good initiative that will help many Kenyans.”

A new report by the Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC) has sharply criticised the Hustler Fund, describing it as a politically expedient but economically disastrous initiative that has failed to deliver on its promises of financial empowerment for low-income Kenyans.