12-year-old Shifa Amankwa-Gabbey has emerged winner of the 2018 edition of the National Spelling Bee Championship.
The Junior High School student from Nagie’s Angels Educational Centre in Kumasi in the Ashanti Region beat over 150 other spellers from various schools across the country to take home the ultimate prize.
Shifa after enduring 7 rounds of accurate word spelling at the grand finale of the 11th edition of the competition at the Accra Digital Centre in Accra on Saturday, February 3, 2018 could not hold back her tears after a rapturous crowd in the auditorium cheered her on.
Raj Thakwani, 11 and Akshaya Lakshika Janikiraman, 12, of Delhi Public School International in Tema also emerged first and second runner-ups respectively.
For her prize, Shifa Amankwa-Gabbey received an all-expense paid trip to the US to represent Ghana at the 91st Scripps National Spelling Bee.
She also received an engraved trophy, GHc5,000 scholarship from Indomie, plus $500 per diem, GHc1,000 voucher from Blue Knights Bookshop, a DSTV Explorer Decoder, a year subscription to Merriam-Webster Unabridged Online Dictionary, Indomie and Voltic products.
First runner-up, Raj also received a GHC2,000 scholarship from Indomie, GHc800 voucher from Blue Knights Bookshop, a DSTV decoder and other products from the sponsors.
While Akshaya received GHC1,500 scholarship from Indomie, a DSTV decoder, Ghc500 voucher from Blue Knights and assorted products from sponsors.
The top 20 best scoring spellers from the competition also received Gold medals.
High profile personalities including the former Deputy Minister of Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts, Abla Dzifa Gomashie, US Ambassador to Ghana, Robert Jackson were turned up in support of the competition.
Lily Tugbah, 2017 winner of the competition in Ghana who subsequently represented the nation at the US Scripps National Spelling Bee competition was also present.
Speaking to GhanaWeb.com, Shifa who is a first-time participator could not find words to describe her emotions after winning the competition from the regional level to the nationals.
“It’s a mixture of shock and happiness. I mean this is a dream and I can’t still believe it, I haven’t recovered from the shock but I still thank almighty God for bringing me this far,” she said.
The launch of this year’s competition was held under the theme, ‘The relevance of the mother tongue in literacy’.
The National Spelling Bee competition is being championed in Ghana by the Young Educators Foundation (YEF), an international NGO that seeks to improve the lives of the youth through literacy.
