Mr Kwasi Adu-Gyan, the Director-General of Advance Information Technology Institute of the Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence (AITI-KACE), has called for the localization of the internet space in Ghana, as is being done in the rest of the world.

"We needed to go further to ensure that we can also have our internet facility and activities of the internet localized to influence our culture because our culture is being adulterated because of the internet," he said.

Mr Adu-Gyan made the call at the Silver Jubilee Anniversary of the Internet Society (ISOC) Global, and 20 Years Anniversary Celebration of ISOC Ghana Chapter.

He said the internet was influencing the public in so many ways and having knowledge on it could help to get the best out of it.

“We need to take the opportunity now to develop and localize our activities so that we don’t end up paying for global internet service in the near future," he added.

Mr Marcus Adomey, the President of ISOC Ghana, said the Society, which was incorporated in 1996, would work together to promote internet in Ghana by organizing a training on Cryptography and Bitcoin.

“As part of the celebration, on October 7, we plan to meet engineers in Ghana and introduce them to Internet Engineering Task Force (ITF) because it is only the western world that contributes to the development of the standards of the internet.

"So ISOC has decided to encourage researchers and engineers to participate in the use of ITF, to see how best we can contribute to the work of ITF," he said.

He said from October 23 to 27, workshops and conferences would be organized in three tracks to build internet services, network monitoring, and computer security incidence response team.

It would also organize training for ladies in the market to use internet to do business as well as train web developers to develop websites, which were compliant for the visually impaired.

Mr Kenneth Adu Amanfo, the Acting Director of IT, National Communications Authority, charged ISOC and its partners to look at the area of research and put in more efforts to be able to advise government and private sector appropriately so as to employ the right tools and measures to have a safe internet.

"We need to also research on freedom of expression online. But as professionals, as much as we know that the internet has to be free, we also have to ensure that we put in the controls so that the internet is also safe, to come out with policies, guidelines, and best practices for government," he said,

Mrs Awo Aidam Amenya, the Chief Executive Officer of J Initiative, said children needed to be involved in internet governance conversation.

“If they get to engage and understand and learn what goes on within the space, they know that there is a place to report to when they encounter a challenge in the space and even some adults are yet to learn these skills including the ethics of being online," she said.

Mr Albert Antwi, the Cyber Security Advisor, Ministry of Communications, said: “We are also looking at the transformation which is going on in our own ecosystem and that is where the younger generation can be encouraged to look at the available opportunities and how best to take advantage of them”.

He said the anniversary would also see the training of community members in some deprived areas on ICT.