NAIROBI, Oct 13 (Reuters) - Kenyan lawmakers have passed

a bill to regulate digital assets like cryptocurrencies, a

senior parliamentarian said on Monday, as it seeks to boost

investments into the sector by putting clear rules in place for

the emerging industry.

Legislators enacted the Virtual Asset Service Providers Bill

last week, said Kuria Kimani, the chairman of the finance

committee in the national assembly, seeking to address worries

over the lack of clear regulations to govern the sector.

The move puts the East African nation one step away from

joining others like South Africa as the only African nations

with laws to govern the digital assets industry, he said, adding

President William Ruto now needs to sign it into law.

The act sets out the central bank as the licensing authority

for issuance of stablecoins and other virtual assets, while the

capital markets regulator will license those who wish to operate

crypto exchanges and other trading platforms.

The government's move comes as countries now brace for a

boom in U.S. dollar-backed stablecoins that global rulemakers

have warned could undermine less developed economies' own

currencies.

The expected legal clarity is likely to attract increased

investments into the financial technology sector including from

crypto exchanges like Binance and Coinbase, Kimani said, citing

past conversations between those platforms and the government.

"We are hoping that Kenya can be now the gateway into

Africa," he said. "Most of the young people between 18 and 35

years of age are now using virtual assets for trading, settling

payments and as a way of investment or doing business."

Although the digital assets industry has grown exponentially

across the world in the last decade, regulation has been an area

of concern as governments wrestle with ways of preventing

criminals from taking advantage of the anonymity of the systems.

The Kenyan law has borrowed from established practices from

other countries like the United States and Britain, Kimani said.

Kenya is recognised for pioneering mobile-phone-based

financial services, with its M-Pesa technology -- operated by

telecoms company Safaricom -- providing services like

money transfer, savings and investments to tens of millions of

people.