Here’s Everything You Need To Know About President William Ruto’s Startup Fund Initiative

The Startup Fund will provide funding to young Kenyans to scale their businesses

Startup Fund follows the launch of the Hustlers’ Fund, a micro credit scheme delivered via SMS short code service to Kenyans

Kenya’s recently sworn in president, President William Ruto on Sunday 11th December announced that his government will be creating a startup fund with which young Kenyans will be empowered with funds to scale up their businesses.

According to the president, a bill to create a startup fund is currently being prepared for presentation in the parliament.

He was speaking at the State House Nairobi, during a series of meetings with various leaders of international tech companies, the president also said that his government will be working with leading global tech companies to prepare Kenyan youths with opportunities in the digital space. He noted that this will enable young Kenyans to be competitive in the global market.

“We want Kenya to be among countries recognised globally for offering remote services in this field,” he said.  

Leaders of companies present included heads of Meta, Microsoft, Google, Master Card, Visa Card, Multichoice, Thunderbird and Estonia embassy officials.

He later attended the Jamhuri Tech and Innovation Summit at the Kenyatta International Conference Center (KICC) where he toured innovation booths and engaged exhibitors.

The startup fund initiative is the second scheme President Ruto is launching following his victory at the presidential polls earlier in August 2022 subsequent and swearing in as president on September 13th. The first being the Hustler Fund which is an SMS shortcode powered micro loan project which has raised privacy concerns among Kenyans.

The Hustler Fund is Ruto’s flagship $140 million loan project which saw 1.14 million Kenyans signing up for it within its first week of launch. He has promised to come up with Hustler Fund 2.0 by 2023.