Ceylinco Life, Sri Lanka’s leading private sector insurer, announced on Thursday it had launched a unique scholarship scheme to reward academic performance and achievement in other fields, by children of the company’s policyholders, says a press release.

The new scholarship scheme, branded ‘Ceylinco Pranama Scholarship’, was unveiled by Ceylinco Chairman Lalith Kotelawala at a ‘launch news conference’ with an allocation of Rs. 16 million for an islandwide programme.

The four-tiered scholarship scheme is due to begin disbursement almost immediately, with policyholders islandwide being invited to apply for the first round by November 30, Kotelawala said.

"Ceylinco Insurance has grown and performed consistently over the past decade, and has insured well over half a million persons," Kotelawala said. "The Pranama scheme is our way of giving something back to society, while rewarding the loyalty of our policyholders."

He said the company had opted for a scholarship scheme in recognition of the growing costs of education, and to affirm the need to groom future leaders of the country by encouraging and rewarding achievement.

Three of the four categories of scholarships will be awarded annually at district level to top achievers at the Year 5 scholarship examination, the GCE Ordinary Level examination and the GCE Advanced Level examination. Scholarship recipients will receive monthly cash payments ranging from Rs 1,000 to Rs 2,000 for periods of two to five years.

The cash value of the district-level scholarships will range from Rs 36,000 to Rs 72,000 per scholarship holder, with Ceylinco Life paying out more than Rs 16 million to support the education of students all over Sri Lanka, Kotelawala said. "Besides the tangible benefit of this monetary assistance, the symbolic value of the scheme will be tremendous," he said. "We hope it will encourage more children to strive for excellence."

The fourth category of Pranama scholarships will be awarded at the national level, with lump sum payments of Rs. 25,000 to policyholders’ children who qualify to represent the country or establish national records in any event categorized as an Olympic sport. Similar acknowledgment will also be made for any policyholder’s child who is recognized at the national level for creativity or invention, or has an achievement at national level for art, drama or cultural activities.

"Our company operates 72 branches in 18 districts, and our reach is truly islandwide. We hope to play an important role in grooming future leaders on all aspects from all parts of Sri Lanka, as the Pranama scheme grows."

Ceylinco Life’s director/general manager R. Renganathan said that the company has added value to existing policyholders not only from scholarships of this nature, but also from the noteworthy allocation of Rs. 292 million for the payment of bonuses to policyholders for last year. Policyholders can also look forward to rich dividends even in years to come since the company’s Life Fund is the largest in the private sector insurance industry and premium income continues to grow at a healthy rate. Premium income for the first half of the year was Rs 888. 4 million.