This tweet claims that President William Ruto and his government set aside Sh50 trillion for the Hustler Fund yet the country is worth Sh3 trillion.
Background
During the 2022 elections campaigns, President William Ruto promised to create a Hustler Fund that will provide capital for small and micro enterprises. The Kenya Kwanza manifesto did not share details of how the money would be accessed and the specific amount to be disbursed.
The fund is expected to be launched by on November 30, 2022 and more details have now been shared with the public. The Cabinet Secretary for Co-operatives and SMEs Development Simon Chelugui said that official registration will not be required to access the funds, only a particular code on their mobile phones through Safaricom, Airtel and Telcom. He also explained that everytime one borrows money through the Hustler Fund, and five percent will go to a savings scheme that earns interest.
Verification
The measure of a country’s worth is its Gross Domestic Product. The GDP is the total value of everything a country produces and sells. What the author of the tweet quotes as the country’s worth is actually the projection of the total expenditure in the financial year 2022/23.
Former treasury Cabinet Secretary Ukur Yatani delivered the Sh3.31 trillion budget on April 7, 2022. The Sh3.3 trillion is equivalent to 23.9% of the GDP. According to an International Monetary Fund report released in July, 2022, the GDP after the second revision of the budget for the 2022/23 financial year stood at Sh14 trillion and this is how much Kenya is actually worth.
The claim that the Kenya Kwanza government allocated Sh50 trillion to the Hustler Fund is also inaccurate. The government allocated Sh50 billion towards the fund that will be governed under the Public Finance Management Act and not the overstated Sh50 trillion.
Verdict
Claims that the government of Kenya allocated Sh50 trillion to the Hustler Fund and that the country is worth Sh3 trillion are INACCURATE.
This fact check was published by Africa Uncensored with support from Code for Africa’s PesaCheck and African Fact-Checking Alliance.
Add comment