{"id":121956,"date":"2026-05-29T08:36:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T08:36:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=121956"},"modified":"2026-05-29T08:36:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T08:36:09","slug":"ghana-and-nigeria-shine-on-global-stage-at-2026-scripps-national-spelling-bee-usa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=121956","title":{"rendered":"Ghana and Nigeria shine on global stage at 2026 Scripps National Spelling Bee, USA"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Four young spellers from Ghana and Nigeria delivered inspiring performances at the ongoing 2026 Scripps National Spelling Bee in the United States, marking another significant milestone in Africa\u2019s growing presence on the global academic stage.<\/p>\n

The participation of both countries was facilitated by Young Educators Foundation \/Africa (YEF\/A), a not-for-profit committed to promoting literacy,\u00a0and creating opportunities for African youth through international educational platforms and exchanges.<\/p>\n

Representing Ghana was 11-year-old Eugene Osei Mensah, winner of The\u00a0National Spelling Bee\u00a0-Gh 2026 competition, while Nigeria was represented by Newton Temojo, champion\u00a0of\u00a0Scripps Spellingbee In\u00a0Nigeria 2026, and Amazing-Grace Salami, a finalist of the same competition.<\/p>\n

Competing among some of the world\u2019s brightest young spellers, Eugene\u00a0and Amazing -Grace\u00a0exited during the preliminary rounds after missing their\u00a0vocabulary words\u00a0\u2018cygnet\u2019 and \u2018corroborate\u2019 respectively. At the same time,\u00a0Newton advanced to the quarterfinals before bowing out on the vocabulary word \u2018dissuade\u2019.<\/p>\n

Newton\u2019s performance marks a notable improvement for Nigeria, following the country\u2019s preliminary-round exit in\u00a0the 2025 edition of the competition.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0competition\u00a0also featured a remarkable performance from Keona-Dannette Osae-Twum, first runner-up of The National Spelling Bee Gh-2026, who represented New Jersey at the Scripps National Spelling Bee after training extensively with\u00a0resources and coaches,\u00a0and participating\u00a0in the Ghana programme,\u00a0\u00a0Keona advanced to the semifinals before exiting on the word \u201camentiferous.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Ghana
Newton Temojo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Together, the performances of Eugene, Newton, Amazing-Grace\u00a0and Keona reflect the growing strength of spelling and literacy development programs emerging across Africa and within the African diaspora.<\/p>\n

Speaking after the competition,Convener of\u00a0both programmes\u00a0at\u00a0Young Educators Foundation, Africa, Ms. Eugenia Tachie-Menson described this year\u2019s participation as an important step in building long-term academic confidence and international exposure for young African students.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeyond the rankings, this experience continues to show African children that they belong on global platforms and can compete with excellence at the highest levels,\u201d the organization noted.<\/p>\n

The delegation also expressed appreciation to parents, coaches, educators, partners, and supporters in both Ghana and Nigeria, whose commitment made the journey possible.<\/p>\n

\"Ghana<\/figure>\n

While this year\u2019s competition has concluded, organizers say preparations toward next year\u2019s\u00a0international participation have already begun, with renewed focus on literacy development, vocabulary mastery, and academic confidence-building among young Africans.<\/p>\n

The 2026 Scripps National Spelling Bee was held in Washington DC, USA, bringing together elite young spellers from across the United States and around the world.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Four young spellers from Ghana and Nigeria delivered inspiring performances at the ongoing 2026 Scripps National Spelling Bee in the United States, marking another significant milestone in Africa\u2019s growing presence on the global academic stage. The participation of both countries was facilitated by Young Educators Foundation \/Africa (YEF\/A), a not-for-profit committed to promoting literacy,\u00a0and creating [\u2026]<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":121966,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_2277560469115098_106292521332774":"","twitter_aToxNzczMzI3Njk4OTg4ODUxMjAxOw==_1773327698988851200":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[117,10,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-121956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-politics","category-popular"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=121956"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121956\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/121966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=121956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=121956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=121956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}