Two major African countries are making serious moves to regulate their booming crypto sectors. Ghana’s central bank just finished drafting a comprehensive virtual assets bill and sent it to parliament, while Kenya’s National Assembly advanced its own VASP bill through the committee stage.
Ghana’s Bank of Ghana spent years working on this legislation, teaming up with anti-money laundering authorities and the Securities and Exchange Commission to tackle issues like market integrity, KYC requirements, and money laundering prevention. They’ve already started preparing the groundwork by requiring all crypto service providers to register, though registration doesn’t mean licensing or approval yet.
The timing makes sense – about 17% of Ghana’s 34 million people own crypto, ranking them 9th globally. Ghanaians traded $3 billion in digital assets last year alone. But this massive adoption has attracted tons of scammers using Telegram and WhatsApp to target victims, and enforcement officials admit criminals are way ahead of them.
Kenya’s VASP Bill gives regulatory power to the Central Bank of Kenya and the Capital Markets Authority. Lawmakers say an unregulated sector threatens monetary stability and enables terrorism funding and money laundering. The bill now heads to final reading before landing on President Ruto’s desk for signature.
Industry leaders welcome the regulations, believing they’ll attract institutional players and prevent banks from cutting off crypto businesses.
Conclusion
Ghana finalized a crypto bill for parliament, while Kenya advanced VASP legislation, both aiming to regulate rapidly growing digital asset sectors with a 17% adoption rate.
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