The Hustler Fund: A Comedy of Errors

Hello ???? It's Brian from The Kenyan Wall Street?

In today's newsletter, the Auditor General's Report shows that time travellers from up to 2073 and children took Hustlers' Fund loans worth KSh 31 million. We break down this financial joke.

Also, read about the new bill that intends to tame gold smugglers. These and more business stories right here…

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The Hustler Fund : A Comedy of Errors

The Hustler Fund was meant to uplift small businesses, but right now, it’s just a masterclass in mismanagement. With sky-high defaults, missing money, and a leadership vacuum, it’s more of a financial thriller—except no one’s quite sure if it’ll have a happy ending.

We analyzed some of the concerns as follows :?

1. The Repayment Riddle

Turns out, lending billions without a solid collection plan is a bad idea—who knew? A whopping 64% of the Hustler Fund’s loans (Ksh 8.74 billion) have been defaulted. With no real consequences for defaulters, the Fund is basically running like a charity system, which, surprise surprise, isn't working.

2. Who’s Minding the Money?

Managing loans without a dedicated system? Bold move. The Fund leans on banks and mobile operators to handle everything, but there’s no real tracking mechanism.?

Worse still, someone thought it was a great idea to give out loans to infants—1,377 minors, including a 10-day-old baby, somehow got funded. Meanwhile, over 250,000 people with birth dates from the future (yes, 2073) also cashed in KSh 31 million. Time travel investments, perhaps? ??

With no clear audit trail, confused accounting, and a skeleton staff — it is unlikely that accountability will prevail soon…Here's more to this financial joke.?

What I think :?

?? Maybe the government will realize Hustler Fund was not a good idea from the beginning, and will halt it before it stinks any further.?

?? The government will press its arrogance button and decide that pumping more money in a problem fixes a problem. It doesn't. But do your leaders know that??

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eCitizen Audit: Glitches, Gaps & Ghost Agreements

The Auditor-General is diving deep into eCitizen’s operations, uncovering security gaps, governance hiccups, and a lack of valid agreements with service providers—basically, a digital house with some shaky foundations. The platform relies too much on its vendor for updates, has no backup payment system for disasters, and seems to have misplaced its data protection compliance manual, with no proof of registration as a data controller or processor.?

A financial review exposed revenue discrepancies, including variances in USD collections, unsupported prior year balances, and an eyebrow-raising KSh 592 million in commissions. Meanwhile, KSh 857 million in user fees—meant for system maintenance—lacked a clear consultancy agreement with the vendor. Safaricom’s co-location deal expired on June 30, 2023, but nobody got around to renewing it —? talk about an IT governance headache. Here's more.?

What I think :?

?? The Auditor-General’s findings present an opportunity to strengthen eCitizen by addressing governance, security, and financial gaps.?

?? The report exposes serious weaknesses in eCitizen’s operations and poor IT governance. Just weeks ago, the Business Registration Service (BRS) was hacked. Not looking good

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