President William Ruto on Thursday, March 2, 2023, presided over the relaunch of the Women Enterprise Fund – an upgrade of the existing Women’s Funds.
Ruto relaunched WEF during World Women’s Day celebrations held at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre in Nairobi.
The president stated that the new WEF has been improved to eliminate bureaucracies and intermediaries who limited the accessibility of money.
Women Enterprise Fund was established in 2007 as a Semi-Autonomous Government Agency to provide accessible and affordable credit to support women in starting and expanding businesses for wealth and employment creation.
However, Ruto’s administration has placed new measures aimed at ensuring the effectiveness and efficiency of the kitty.
Among the new measures Ruto aims to implement with the new WEF include tripling the resources available under that fund in a bid to triple the number of women groups benefiting from the programme.
Dr. Ruto also wants to digitize WEF so that funds disbursement can be processed instantly as opposed to the current situation where women were forced to wait for 45 days.
President also noted that WEF has 97,331 women groups of which 59,200 groups are ready for onboarding to the digital platform.
The president added that 38,131 groups that are repaying their loans must also be onboarded onto the digital platform.
The current capital available under WEF is Ksh500 million. Ruto said that under the remodelled WEF on the Hustler Platform will be allocated additional funds.
WEF has been changed from manual to digital in line with promise on digital inclusion. The WEF digital platform is now open for groups to register from today.
How to apply for WEF
In order to apply for WEF, one must first be a member of a registered women’s group in Kenya.
The government has also made changes to the USSD code used in accessing the Hustlers Fund to include the new products.
Dial *254# on your phone’s dial code.
Select Option 2 labelled “Women Fund”
Follow the instructions and fill in details where necessary.
