The Government's plan to have more funds allocated to the Financial Inclusion Fund, widely known as the Hustler Fund, suffered a major blow on Tuesday after lawmakers declined requests for additional funding to the kitty by the Ministry of Cooperatives.
The developments followed pleas by the Principal Secretaries for MSMEs Development and Cooperatives, Susan Mang’eni and Patrick Kilemi, to convince the National Assembly’s Trade, Industry and Cooperatives Committee to intervene following budget cuts to the programme.
The two officials, who separately presented their respective 2025/2026 estimates of revenue and expenditure, warned that key Bottom-Up Economic Transformation Agenda (BETA) initiatives may stall if the funding gap is not addressed.
''The Hustler Fund requires Sh5 billion but was only allocated Ksh1 billion. We request full reinstatement to meet the growing demand for financial products,'' said Mang'eni.
However, the lawmakers could not take any of the pleas, drawing reactions and castigating the government over the performance and recovery of the funds lent to Kenyans.
Ikolomani MP Benard Shinali, who also serves as the chairperson of the committee, questioned why the House should prioritise allocating funds to the scheme when there were other pressing areas requiring government attention.
"Kenyans have a lot of challenges that require government attention, including in infrastructure. Why should billions of shillings be allocated to be loaned out?" posed Shinali.
"You want more money to lend to Kenyans, yet you can’t recover what was already disbursed?" asked Aldai MP Mary Keitany.
Over 13 million Kenyans have defaulted on their payments, with the government struggling to recover approximately Ksh7 billion from the fund, according to data from the fund managers.
The government has since threatened to take further action against defaulters, including recovering the funds from their mobile money deposits.
PS Mang’eni admitted that a significant number of borrowers had defaulted but assured the Committee that new measures had been adopted to enhance recovery.
She also noted that more young Kenyans were registering for the fund upon turning 18, citing its growing impact across the country.
