Hustler Fund has launched a business mentorship programme that will see the best-performing borrowers in Nyeri County receive free training on how to turn their small-scale businesses into strong and sustainable enterprises.
The programme, which is dubbed Tukuze Hub, is being implemented by the Hustler Fund in partnership with Strathmore University Business School and the African Management Institute (AMI).
The initiative will see selected borrowers receive business training, financial literacy and one-on-one mentorship to help them increase revenues, scale-up their businesses and create employment opportunities.
According to Hustler Fund Chief Executive Officer, Henry Tanui, the programme which was first rolled out in Mombasa County in July this year, marks a shift in the Fund’s approach from advancing loans to supporting borrowers build businesses capable of surviving and growing beyond the initial credit.
Tanui said that the Fund is now focusing on the sustainability of the businesses supported by the credit and job creation after establishing its customers’ borrowing and spending trends.
“We have heard of beneficiaries who have given their testimonies that they have created jobs and who have demonstrated that it is possible to create a job within our ecosystem, using Sh500. And we have also heard about their long-term plans, where some want to be manufacturers and some want to be exporters, so we want to change the story into sustainability and job creation,” he said.
Tanui also revealed that Nyeri was chosen for the pilot owing to its strong borrowing and repayment record. He said that in the last four years, 400,000 residents from the county have borrowed a cumulative Sh1.84 billion from the revolving fund, with the county recording a repayment rate of about 91 per cent.
“In Nyeri County people borrow to finance their businesses. Some of them are in agricultural space, and that is part of the reason we are here to appreciate them and also support them with skills to grow their businesses,” he said.
Overall, the CEO noted that by October 7, the Fund had issued Sh92 billion in loans, out of which more than Sh78 billion had been repaid.
He said that borrowers have also saved Sh7 billion through the Fund.
The CEO said that Fund is working on a system that will allow the government to use the data to create a national credit rating system that would enable Kenyans with good repayment histories to establish their creditworthiness and access other financial services from other lenders.
Jennifer Kiiru, a project director at Strathmore University Business School’s Africa Economic Development Hub, said that the initiative will provide a platform for the beneficiaries to receive customised, one-on-one advisory support based on the needs of their businesses.
She noted that through the partnership with the Hustler fund, they will identify weaknesses of the participating businesses and work with entrepreneurs to develop individual action plans. The support she said is expected to help businesses increase their revenues, expand operations and eventually become sustainable without relying solely on Hustler Fund financing.
“What is unique about this model is that we curate the solutions with them. We walk the journey with them, and then we also get to the point where they are ready to go to the next level. By that time we will have capacitated them enough to be able to work on their own,” she said.
African Management Institute (AMI) Chief Executive Officer, Rebecca Harrison, said the organisation will use a combination of digital learning and hands-on mentorship where the beneficiaries will be placed in cohorts to enable them to learn from one another.
She said the six-month training will focus on practical areas including business planning, attracting customers, financial management, putting effective systems in place and managing employees.
“We will use that cohort-based approach, where we help businesses understand what they need to focus on specifically. Our learners will have access to an online technology platform, but we put them in groups because we know that entrepreneurs love learning from other entrepreneurs. Then we give them practical tools to help them implement what they know they need to do in their business,” said Harrison.
Nyeri County Commissioner Josephat Biwott welcomed the initiative, saying the county’s borrowers had demonstrated that Hustler Fund credit could be used to improve livelihoods in the country.
While discouraging residents from politicising development projects initiated by the government, Biwott also urged the beneficiaries to put the new skills into practice.
By Wangari Mwangi and Samuel Maina
