![]() The ‘Hustler’ fund (also known as The Financial Inclusion Fund), rolled out on 30 November 2022, aims to provide loans – between Kshs. The move is amplified by the introduction of what the government terms ‘Hustler Fund’, 50 billion Kenya Shillings – US$419 million – every year under the new Ministry of Cooperatives and MSMEs (Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises) Development. So far, the government is keen on ensuring that access to credit at reasonable cost becomes easier for ordinary Kenyans than ever before. A range of efforts have been made – from advising lenders against blacklisting of debtors, to calls for credit scoring systems and successfully convincing the country’s giant mobile money network Safaricom to reduce lending rates (by about 40%) at its credit platforms Fuliza and M-shwari. According to the president, credit is ‘ a magic formula’ that will stir economic growth among ‘hustlers’ and feed into the broader government agenda of national transformation. The most prominent of these interventions is the government’s attempt to ease access to credit. These, the government believes, will address the underlying problems facing the ‘hustler’ economy. Speaking to Kenyans who ‘hustle’ in the informal economy, the new Kenya government is, however, pursuing a series of social protection and financial inclusion interventions. Many slithers of the middle classes, according to research, are at risk of downward mobility or even ‘sliding back into poverty’, yet they bear the burden of responsibilities for many less privileged dependents, both kin and friends. Meanwhile, the African Development Bank and a wide range of scholarship have noted that many Kenyans are living in precarious, highly volatile and vulnerable conditions. Indeed, the 2020 Kenya National Bureau of Statistics Comprehensive Poverty Report documents that 15.9 million Kenyans are poor, with youth unemployment estimated at 38.9%. These Kenyans, forming the majority of the population (85% according to the Kenya Kwanza manifesto), are perceived to be at the bottom of the economic pyramid, and seen as having entrepreneurial potential, but remain poor and excluded in the face of mushrooming unemployment, marginalisation, high poverty rates and the high cost of living. The ‘hustler’ narrative was coined to speak to these many Kenyans who are engaged mostly in informal economic activities rather than employed in the formal sector. ![]() The term ‘hustler’ draws from what the new Kenya president, Dr William Ruto, considers as his personal life of growing up in a family of extremely modest means, not well-connected and surrounded by informal economic activities to make ends meet, a reflection he believes resonates with the lives of poor Kenyans faced with economic hardships. It continues to feature prominently in their public speeches since their assumption into top office. The piece inspired us to use this Stanford published title by Deborah James, a member of the IAI advisory board.Ī so-called ‘hustlers’ narrative, clothed in the language of ‘bottom-up approach’, was central to the recent political campaigns and the manifesto of the newly elected Kenya government.
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