A Nigerian girl from Gombe State, Maryam Danazimi Ibrahim, has won ₦120 million at an international Quran competition in Makkah, Saudi Arabia.
Ibrahim took the top spot among female contestants in the second category of the 46th King Abdulaziz International Quran Competition, winning a cash prize of SAR300,000, equivalent to about ₦120 million.
The category required participants to memorise the entire Quran and demonstrate excellent recitation and Tajweed, as well as an understanding of Quranic vocabulary.
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Her victory came during an important milestone for the competition, as this was the first edition to include female participants.
A total of 132 women competed alongside 202 men, with participants drawn from 133 countries. In all, 334 contestants took part in the competition.
Ibrahim was one of 50 contestants who received awards across the five competition categories, with 25 male and 25 female participants among the winners.
In the female second category, Bahrain’s Amat Al-Rahman Badi Mutahhar Kulaib finished second with SAR275,000, while three Saudi Arabian contestants followed.
Amani bint Shaya bin Awad Al-Husaiki Al-Harthi received SAR250,000, Zainab bint Ibrahim bin Abdulsalam Idris won SAR235,000, and Shumoukh bint Faiz bin Hamdan Al-Zanbaqi received SAR220,000.
The overall prize money distributed to winners was SAR10.26 million.
Contestants came from different parts of the world, including Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Cameroon, Algeria, Egypt, Indonesia, the United Kingdom, Brazil, Bangladesh and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The awards were presented in Makkah by Prince Saud bin Mishaal, Deputy Governor of the Makkah Region, on behalf of Saudi Arabia’s King Salman.
The annual competition is organised by Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Islamic Affairs, Dawah and Guidance and focuses on Quran memorisation, recitation and interpretation.
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