At least Sh35 billion Hustler Fund has been disbursed to 21 million beneficiaries since it was launched, Micro and Small Enterprises Authority board chairman James Mureu has said.
He said out of the disbursed funds, Sh25 billion had been paid back.
He said 7.5 million beneficiaries have received the loan multiple times, an indication that it had benefited them.
“The interest rates are low. We are making the unbanked bankable and stopping the question of collateral and using credit rating. Keep servicing your debt and improve your credit scores for you to be able to get more and more figures out of your credit scores,” Mureu said.
He spoke during a trade fair at Machakos University on Wednesday.
Mureu said the fund was beneficial to MSE’s since it helps them grow and contributes to solving the problem of unemployment across the country.
He said the government was equally empowering the youth through digital innovations among other credible skills that will make them become entrepreneurial and relevant in local, regional and international markets.
“There are many other areas we are looking at, taking advantage of the ageing international community like Italy and Holland. Europe generally has an aged community and we have a young, robust, enterprising community of youth that are well trained and that’s a service which we can export to the rest of the world,"Mureu said.
"To be able to say, here we are. You have an ageing community, we have a youthful trained community that would like to be engaged.”
Mureu said as a country, we should look at services as commodities for exportation.
“We have for a long time been looking at tea and coffee as the only main commodities that are traded for export. But, we must start looking at tea and coffee as secondary to the services because that’s where we really excel in; digital innovation services that we offer to the international community,” he said.
He said Kenyan universities should revise their curricula to produce graduates with entrepreneurial skills that can be exported.
“We are at the university to also say; there is need to develop skills that are required because for a long time, we have just been churning out people who are studying history, doing sciences. But, can we retool our curriculum so that we are able to develop skills that are able to take us to the next level such us digital space?” Mureu said.
“The reason we are able to deploy the Hustler Fund is because we are using digital technology where we are able to reach out millions of people within a click of button. That’s where we are going to look at being more innovative, creative and approach international problems with solutions,” Mureu said.
