Nairobi, Sept. 1 -- This week offered another reminder of how fragile the sacco sector's biggest ambitions around the National Payments System remain.

The Co-operatives Bill, which would repeal the outdated Co-operative Societies Act and allow saccos to connect directly to the National Payments System, is still stuck in a parliamentary Mediation Committee after the National Assembly rejected Senate amendments in April.

That delay matters because the sector now holds more than Sh1.5 trillion in member deposits and assets, yet remains locked out of the payment rails that Sacco Central was created to access.

But the legislation is only part of the story. More revealing was Mentor Sacco chief executive Joyce Waceke's warning that the vacuu...