Frequently Asked Questions

The competition is organised by the Bee Spelling Competition Initiative, an NGO duly registered with the CAC and endorsed by the Federal Ministry of Education to carry out the Nigeria Spelling Bee and send Spellers to represent Nigeria at international literary competitions such as the African Spelling Bee. The organisation is also in working relationship with the Ministry of Information and Culture.

the Nigeria Spelling Bee is open to sponsorship from corporate organizations and individuals who want to make a difference in the lives of the next generation of Nigerians. Visit our sponsorship page for more details.

You can participate in the Nigeria Spelling Bee by registering online on www.NigeriaSpellingBee.com/register as long as you meet the criteria. Click Here for the criteria.

The competition is open to all students in Nigeria within the criteria, both Spellers registering under their schools or registered by parents.

There are no upper or lower limits to the number of Spellers from a school. All students have the opportunity to contest in the Nigeria Spelling Bee as long as they meet the eligibility criteria.

Schools are advised to avail the same opportunity to all interested students.

Registration for the competition is ₦2,500 only per student. Registration fee is to be paid at any branch of FirstBank Nig., Account number 2022981198 (Bee Spelling Competition Initiative). Payment can also be made with ATM Card online from HERE or via Mobile/Web/ATM Transfer.

After payment, visit the registration portal to fill in the details of the speller. A confirmation slip will be presented after registration. Spellers are expected to submit their confirmation slips during accreditation on the competition day.

Schools registering more than 10 Spellers stand to register one speller for free per 10 Spellers paid for. Schools only need to make a bulk payment in the name of the school for all Spellers except one for every 10.

i.e., ABC School only pays ₦25,000 for 11 spellers (instead of ₦27,500); or ₦50,000 for 22 students (instead of ₦55,000). Schools will need to fill all speller forms with that one payment teller.

The official Dictionary for this Season of the competition is the “Shorter Oxford English Dictionary (SOED, Sixth Edition)” by WordWeb Pro. This is the sole source of words and adjudication criteria.

The “Shorter Oxford English Dictionary” to be used by Nigeria Spelling Bee officials contains more about 600,000 words and is developed by WordWeb. In contrast, the Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary (OALD 9th edition) only has about 185,000 words.

Due to the volume, the dictionary is NOT sold as a Single-Physical book. However, there are online downloadable softwares for both computers and Android phones.

To download the same version of the SOED that the Nigeria Spelling Bee uses to your computer, visit WordWeb.info (costs total of $68 and contains sounds). To download a similar app developed by MobiSystems to your android phone from playstore, click HERE (free trial available, then costs about N11,000).

Strictly for educational and testing purposes, you can download this MODDED VERSION free of charge to your android phone.

The Nigeria Spelling Bee is divided into two distinct categories. The Senior and the Junior. These categories are age-based and not based on whether the student is in Primary or Secondary school.

Senior Category:

• Senior spellers must not be more than 16years as at November 2020 (Please do the necessary calculations).
• Senior spellers must not have passed SS2 or be writing their UTME, WAEC or Senior NECO in the 2020 Academic Session.
• The advised minimum age for the Senior category is 13years (this is not a restriction to younger outstanding spellers).

Junior Category:

• Junior spellers must not be more than 13years as at November 2020 (Please do the necessary calculations).
• The advised minimum age for the Junior category is 9years (this is not a restriction to younger outstanding spellers).

Yes, you can. However, note that a young speller in the senior category cannot switch categories later in the competition.

The competition calendar should reflect the dates, venue and time of the competition across Nigeria.

If your state is not yet listed under ‘upcoming’ or ‘concluded’, it will be communicated to you via SMS once it is confirmed. We advise that you register, download the study guide and start studying or preparing your students.

The Nigeria Spelling Bee receives hosting requests from interested schools who wish to host the State or Regional Qualifiers in their school premises.

Please visit our HOSTING page for details and benefits of a host school and to make your request official.

If your State Qualifiers has been conducted, you can participate in a neighbouring state in your region. That way, you still get to participate in your Regional Qualifiers.

Yes. We welcome schools or individuals who wish to come to observe and support the Spellers on the competition day. Note that you will be seated as observers on first-come-first-serve bases after participating schools are accommodated.

Each speller will be expected to appear on the competition day and spell words assigned as per rounds of the contest.

At the end of the round, spellers who spelt correctly will progress to the next round, this is done until the needed number of Qualifiers emerge in the state or regional level, or until a Champion emerges in the National Finals.

The Nigeria Spelling Bee does not provide a list of English words that will be used in the competition, as we expect spellers to vastly read and not just cram-up words.

Spellers are expected to read broadly and use the study guide as a guide on how words are usually formed based on their origins.

A list containing indigenous words (Yoruba, Hausa and Igbo) is provided for use in the Fun (Non-elimination) round of the contest at State and Regional Qualifiers.

The study guide is available upon registration for the competition. If for any reason you could not download it after registration, please email [email protected] and request for a copy. State the speller ID of the student in your request.

If your questions are not captured above or you further need more information, please follow the steps below:

First send a text message (SMS) with your question, stating your location and all your questions to 09056624866. You will receive a reply immediately.

You can also send your enquiry via WhatsApp to 09056624866.

Finally, you can put a call through to 09056624866 during the day or late evening (no odd hours calls please).