Hustler Fund — Personal Loan
Offers Kenyan individuals mobile-access micro-loans with low-barrier application and no collateral requirement.
The Hustler Fund Personal Loan is a mobile-first microcredit product operated by Kenya's Financial Inclusion Fund, launched in November 2022 by President William Ruto. The product extends individual Kenyans access to credit ranging from KES 500 to KES 50,000 at initial entry, with credit limits rising to KES 150,000 for borrowers who build a positive repayment history through successive cycles. Access is exclusively through USSD code *254# on Safaricom, Telkom, or Airtel mobile networks, and no physical collateral is required — no payslip, title deed, or logbook. As of mid-2025, more than 27 million Kenyans had enrolled and over KES 84 billion had been disbursed cumulatively, making it one of the largest government-operated digital credit facilities in Africa.
The loan carries an 8% per annum interest rate, pro-rated across a rolling 14-day repayment window. Eligibility is restricted to individual Kenyan residents; registered companies, cooperatives, and organisations are served under the separate Hustler Fund Group Loan and Bridge Loan products. Five percent of each disbursement is automatically channelled into a mandatory savings pool split between long-term retirement savings (70%) and short-term withdrawable savings (30%). A borrower's credit ceiling increases over successive cycles based on repayment performance rather than physical collateral.
This is a pure loan instrument — borrowers repay principal plus interest on a 14-day cycle. The Financial Inclusion Fund also operates the Group Loan (targeting registered groups and chamas, with higher ceilings) and the Bridge Loan (targeting small businesses with working capital needs up to KES 2.5 million). Award amounts for this product are denominated in Kenyan Shillings; organisations seeking non-repayable funding should look to grant programs from other Kenyan government agencies or international development funders active in Kenya.
USSD-accessible micro-loan for individual Kenyan borrowers offering KES 500 to KES 150,000 at 8% per annum with no collateral, disbursed via mobile money through the government's Financial Inclusion Fund.
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