Kenya’s Hustler Fund may survive early challenges

Significance

The fund is an ambitious, complex and unorthodox approach to boosting financial inclusion and providing credit to citizens and small businesses, but it is not uncontroversial.

Impacts

• The fund is technically complex to manage and vulnerable to risk on multiple fronts, including borrower default, data security and sabotage.
• The fund’s complexity and risk will increase with the ongoing rollout of new products with larger borrowing limits.
• Partnerships with experienced and capable commercial partners will help the government offset some of the technical and operational risk.
• Ongoing negotiations with commercial partners over the terms and handling of the fund will need to be effective to avoid any disruptions.