Staying true to its calling as the National Body of Accountants, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka (CA Sri Lanka) unveiled a unique loan scheme which paves way for its massive student base to purchase laptops on an easy payment scheme facilitated by two leading banks.
Both, People’s Bank and Amana Bank have come onboard to grant registered CA students following the globally recognised CA Sri Lanka professional programme with the required loan of up to LKR 150,000 to purchase laptops with the stipulated technical criteria which will enable the students to carry out their studies uninterrupted as well as sit for online exams conducted by the Institute. Students who obtain the loan, can settle it within 12, 24, 36 or 48 months.
In December 2020, CA Sri Lanka introduced the virtual exam with over 1900 Corporate and Strategic Level students sitting for it. Subsequently, in March this year, at the Corporate and Strategic Level physical exam, over 4500 candidates sat for the exam.
“We realised that some students may not have easy access to computers and that could be one reason why there was a drop in the number of students who sat for the virtual exam last year, in comparison to the physical exam this year,” President of CA Sri Lanka Mr. Manil Jayasinghe said.
Therefore, CA Sri Lanka took steps to facilitate a bank loan which will allow them to invest in a laptop and to sit for future exams, and also carry on their studies without any interruptions. “We take pride in our standing as a world class professional body, and instead of limiting our role to providing a recognised qualification, we always aspire to go beyond our scope. This loan scheme is one such initiative,” Mr. Jayesinghe added.
Chief Executive Officer of CA Sri Lanka, Ms. Dulani Fernando said that since COVID-19 engulfed the country last year, which led to lockdowns and other restrictions, the Institute took steps to introduce a range of contemporary tech-savvy services for the benefit of its 30,000 students scattered all over the country including enabling online registrations for new students.
“Among some of the primary initiatives introduced by us was the online exams and webinars while all study material including study packs, pilot papers and mock exams were made available via the Institute’s online Learning Management System (LMS) which enabled students to follow the programme from the comfort of their homes,” she added.