The government is tak­ing bold steps to shape the digital landscape into one that is inclusive, secure, and transformative with emphasises on empowering young digital citizens, the Minister of State for Public Sector Reform, Lydia Lamisi Akan­variba, has stated.This, she said would provide a safe space for children to learn about digital rights, online safety, and responsible technology use, while actively contributing their perspectives on policies that affect their online experi­ences.She made this known at the Ghana Internet Governance Forum (IGF), held on Thursday in Accra where leaders from government, the private sector, civil society, academia, and international or­ganisations convened to chart the nation's digital future.The IGF is a multi-stakeholder community which bring individuals from various fields, communities, government, and civil society organisations, together to enable them to benefit from the internet, its governance, and its utility.The forum was dubbed "build­ing an inclusive digital future together""We want to promote inclusive internet access and digital litera­cy, closing the digital divide and unlocking the opportunities for every Ghanaian, regardless of your geographical or income status," she said.The minister added that digital transformation was no longer a futuristic ambition, but a present necessity, and was therefore a collective responsibility to ensure that digital transition was ethical and secured.She highlighted the country's progress in digital innovation such as mobile money and e-govern­ment services to tech start-ups that are contributing to solving local challenges with global ambition.She also indicated that the government was committed to strengthening multi-stakeholder engagement, advance our digital domain name space, open data, data protection, DNS, and cyber­security, promote inclusive internet access and digital literacy and also to embrace emerging technologies like AI."Let us be bold in our thinking, but grounded in our realities.

Let us be open to new ideas, but firm in our values.

And let us ensure that the outcomes of this forum do not sit on shelves, but are trans­lated into real action in our laws, our systems, and in the lives of our citizens," she expressed.