The journey of the 2018 edition of the Miss Malaika beauty pageant begun on Friday, July 13 at the Tomreik hotel where hundreds of beautiful ladies showed up to get a chance to change the course of their lives. 

Many were those with hopes of being part of the finalists, but at the end of the screening, only 16 made it to the finals of the competition itself.

The 16 delegates, for weeks, have been taken through an intensive grooming and learning processes which are to shape them into assets for society. From communications to the catwalk, personal outlook to entrepreneurial skills etc, they were taken through it all.

The highlights of their experiences, however, are the charity projects they embarked on. The ladies donated to three Cerebral Palsy centres in the country.

After weekly performance assessment and public votes, six ladies were evicted leaving it 10 ladies to go to the finals.

Anne, Dela, Mariam, Rosetta, Gloria, Ambraya, Evelyn, Afia, Gesa and Jennifer were to battle it out for the coveted crown that currently sits on the head of Miss Pearl Nyarko, the winner for 2017.

The grand finale finally came off at the National Theatre in Accra and it was full of thrill, fun and excitement with DJ Vyrusky on the turntables to excite patrons.

Joselyn Dumas, James Gardiner, Jackie Appiah, Lexis Bill and Naa Ashorkor were judges for the night as Berla Mundi steered affairs as host of the event.

The ladies left nothing to chance as they all delivered very powerful speeches and satisfying responses to the questions from the judges for the night.

Jennifer, who couldn’t make it into the Top 5 was full of smiles after winning two awards; Best Make-Up during the pageant which comes with a whole lot of products from Glams make-up.

The second reward came with a cool ¢5000 which will aid her in starting her social enterprise project, as well as a free trip to the United Kingdom, both from the British Council.

Afia also won miss talent and walked away with a cool television set from TLC.

There were charged performances from Kidi who opened the show unveiling the Top 10 finalists, followed by Wendy Shay who displayed an unforgettable performance.

Mzvee was third to perform and finally, Kuami Eugene proved to the audience why he is called ‘rockstar’ with an exuberant act to set the tone for the announcement of the winner.

Mariam emerged the queen as announced by Berla Mundi with Evelyn and Rosetta emerging First Runner-up and Second runner-up respectively.

Overall, it was a night to remember as all the ladies displayed courage and effort to win the crown but there can always only be one queen and that was, Mariam.

Mariam walked home with the enviable Miss Malaika Ghana 2018 crown, a brand new Nissan Sunny from premium motors and a brand new phone from Infinix.

She also got a 49’ smart television, a year’s supply of fabric from GTP, makeup from Glams, products from UB, a monthly stipend for the first time and a scholarship from Wisconsin university to pursue a post-graduate program.