By Alloys Musyoka
Mombasa County is leading in terms of the number of people who took hustler funds in the coastal region as well as repayment.
A total of 579,396 residents took a loan of Sh1.9 billion with bagging number two where about 575,353 residents took a total of Sh1.22 billion hustler fund loans
Kwale which bagged number three has about 296,831 Kwale residents who benefited from the national government hustler fund personal loans of Sh610 millions by July 2024.
Kwale is followed by Taita Taveta County that has 158,862 residents who benefited from Sh430 million loans.
Tana River county which is the second last with 108,844 residents having taken Sh170 million is followed by Lamu county which is the last with a total of 56,455 residents benefiting from Sh130 millions.
This is according to the information released to the public by the state department for Micro small and medium enterprises development.
In terms of loan repayment Kwale retained number three with 71 per cent following Kilifi County that has 71.1 per cent while Mombasa County led with 80.6 per cent.
Lamu is number four, Tana River number five and Taita Taveta county number six with repayment of 69.7, 61.6 and 59 respectively.
The hustler funds that was launched in November 2022 has been issuing loans of Sh500 to 50,000 to individuals for a period of 14 days repayment model with an interest rate of 8 per cent per year.
President William Ruto in his coast region tour said that the funds have continued to help many Kenyans doing business.
In June 2024 the government stepped in effort to recover hustler funds loans amounting to billions that had been borrowed.
Borrowers who had defaulted started receiving messages reminding them to pay or face fines in a bid to recover around Sh9.9 billion as of October 2023.
