President William Ruto during the launch of the Hustler Fund at Green Park, Nairobi. (Photo: Nation).

At least 3.3 million US dollars have been disbursed to Kenyan borrowers, a day after President William Ruto launched a loan scheme targeting youth and informal business owners.

According to local media reports, over a million Kenyans have already registered to the government loan initiative.

The scheme, known as the Hustler Fund outlines eligibility requirements as being at least 18 years old, having a national identity card, a registered SIM card and mobile money account with Safaricom, Airtel or Telkom.

The country’s minister for co-operatives reportedly said the scheme has an uptake of 600 transactions per second, hours after the launch – which eased later.

President Ruto launched the personal finance product, which is among the four loan products provided by the Hustler Fund.

“We will unshackle millions of Kenyans from the chains of debts that they are unable to pay,” the President said during the launch.

The Nation newspaper understands that other microloans, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) loans and start-up loans – will be launched at a later date.

Borrowers are expected to repay the loan within 14 days, and an annual interest of 8% calculated per day will be charged.

The fund was a key campaign promise by the president who came to power in September.