The Academy also awards a number of prizes every year, including Gold and Silver awards. The Gold medal is awarded to Ghanaians, based on their publication or invention, in recognition of contribution to knowledge. Submissions for the Gold award are mostly from fairly senior scholars. The Silver award is for the most promising unpublished work in the arts and sciences; it is awarded for outstanding Masters/Doctoral dissertations accepted by any of the universities in Ghana. There are also undergraduate essay contests in the arts and sciences, which attract a Bronze award. This latter award scheme is often highly patronized by students.
Through books and manuscripts awarded, the Academy sometimes identifies talented and brilliant scholars, who are encouraged to apply to be Fellows of the Academy.
Christian Baeta Memorial Fund for Literature.
In November 2004, under the auspices of the Academy, the Christian Baeta Memorial Fund for Literature awarded prize money of ¢19,000,000(GH¢1900) to Mrs. Genevieve Kafui Aku Ofori, for the publication of her manuscript ‘ Evegbe Fefenlodanuwo Fe Gomedokpe: Fiawoo fe Gome dze dowo ‘ (The Foundation of Ewe Literary Drama: Fiawoo’s Pioneering Work) at its 45 th Anniversary Dinner at the M-Plaza Hotel. The book was among six entries initially scrutinized by the Awards Committee in 2003, for which Mrs. Ofori’s was adjudged the best. It is considered critical in teaching Ewe Literature in Training Colleges and the Universities. The work itself attempts a fully-fledged analysis and interpretative study of the foremost Ewe playwright – F.K. Fiawoo, who published three plays namely Toko Atolia (1932), Tuinese (1945) and Fia Yi Dziehe (1962). The book analyzes these plays in terms of themes, plot structure, literary devices and use of language. It is also reputed to be the first MPhil Thesis done entirely in the Ewe Language at the University of Ghana.
Mrs. Ofori, who incidentally is the maiden beneficiary of the award, disclosed that the idea to undertake MPhil Research work in Ewe was instigated by none other than Prof. Kwesi Yankah, then Honorary Secretary of the Academy, when he was Head of the Linguistics Department of the University of Ghana in 1996. Mrs. Ofori expressed the hope to ‘contribute towards the fund through proceeds from the sale of her published work’.
The late Rev. Emeritus Prof. Christian Goncalves Baeta, in whose name the award was instituted, was elected Fellow of the Academy in 1961. He was President of the Academy from 1990 – 1992. Before he died on 29 th December 1994, he had charged his children in his Will to invest some money from his estate, in the Academy, to administer a Fund (the CHRISTIAN BAETA MEMORIAL FUND FOR LITERATURE). Subsequently, the Council of the Academy set up a sub-committee under the chairmanship of Prof. Kwame Gyekye in 2001 to administer the fund after an appreciable accumulation of funds.