President William Ruto on Thursday defended the impact of the Hustler Fund, saying it has provided more than Sh80 billion in loans to millions of Kenyans and helped repair the credit histories of borrowers who were previously blacklisted.
Addressing a joint sitting of Parliament during his State of the Nation Address on Thursday, Ruto said the fund has become a financial lifeline for small traders and youth locked out of formal lending.
“The Hustler Fund has now reached over 7 million Kenyans,” he said.
“Those who were blacklisted have since repaired their credit. Three million small businesses that were locked out are now back, and two million are frequent borrowers.”
The President said the initiative has opened up new opportunities for hundreds of thousands of young entrepreneurs.
“Through the fund, 800,000 entrepreneurs are accessing over Sh150,000 without collateral,” he said.
“This has never happened before at this scale.”
However, Ruto insisted that access to loans alone cannot sustainably transform young people’s lives.
He said this is why the government rolled out the Nyota programme, which he described as one of the country’s most ambitious youth empowerment initiatives.
“But credit alone is not enough,” he said.
“That is why we launched the Nyota programme, one of the most ambitious youth empowerment efforts we have undertaken.”
Ruto said Nyota is designed to equip young people with practical skills, industry exposure, and real economic opportunities.
Earlier, Ruto said Kenya has made “commendable progress” over the past three years but is still performing “below its true weight,” urging the country to abandon what he called a culture of “small thinking and ordinary expectations.”
Ruto said he was shifting from “a vision to sell” to “a story to tell,” reflecting on Kenya’s 62-year journey of “struggles, hardships, triumphs and milestones.”
“I reflected deeply on the long road we have travelled as a nation,” he said. “From this reflection came one truth: we have made commendable progress, but Kenya is still below its true weight.”
The president called for a new national mindset anchored on ambition and courage, saying it was time to push beyond mediocrity.
“We must cast off the prevailing mindset of being content with the average,” he told lawmakers. “We must step beyond the comfort of the familiar and the ordinary, and reach—with courage, clarity and conviction—for nothing less than excellence and greatness.”
