The President’s Fund, which has a 50-year history, “truly became a fund belonging to the people only from last year,” Speaker of House Dr. Jagath Wickramaratne said today, highlighting the government’s efforts to decentralise and digitalise the institution.

Speaking at the inaugural programme of the President’s Fund educational scholarship scheme for children of low-income lottery sales assistants, held at the North Central Provincial Council Auditorium in Anuradhapura, the Speaker said the Fund had been transformed from a Colombo-based institution into a service that people could access more easily at the grassroots level.

“The President’s Fund is no longer a distant institution confined to Colombo. It has been transformed into a truly people-friendly service that the public can easily access through the Grama Niladhari and Divisional Secretariat offices,” Dr. Wickramaratne said.

He said the decentralisation of the Fund to the Divisional Secretariat level, together with its digitalisation, had enabled it to become more accessible to the public.

The Speaker was addressing the gathering as 65 children of lottery sales assistants in the North Central Province received scholarships under the newly introduced educational assistance programme.

The scholarship scheme, covering children from Grade One to GCE Advanced Level, is being implemented across all provinces as recognition of the contribution made by lottery sales assistants to the President’s Fund through lottery sales.

Dr. Wickramaratne also highlighted the substantial contribution made by Development Lottery sales agents, saying that approximately 22,000 agents contributed Rs. 5.112 billion to the President’s Fund during the six months from January 1 to June 30, 2026.

Meanwhile, Minister of Housing Construction and Water Supply Dr. Susil Ranasinghe said education was a key means of enabling children from rural communities to overcome poverty. He said the government’s education reforms aimed to equip children with skills and abilities suited to the future world and create competent professionals and entrepreneurs.

The minister said supporting rural children through education was essential to the government’s objective of eradicating rural poverty.

Senior government officials, members of Parliament, representatives of the President’s Fund, the Development Lotteries Board and National Lotteries Board, and senior security officials attended the event.