Dubai: Pepsi World will donate four tonnes of foreign currency coins collected by its vending machines to Dubai Municipality’s Currency Charity Bank.
This week, a Pepsi World delegation, led by its CEO Tariq Al Sakka, handed over around 300kg of foreign coins to Hussain Nasser Lootah, director-general of Dubai Municipality. The rest will be donated gradually.
Mariam Bin Fahd, director of the municipality’s knowledge management department, who came up with the idea of the Currency Charity Bank, was also present during the meeting.
Pepsi World has now upgraded its vending machines so that they recognise foreign currencies and reject them.
The Currency Charity Bank is a municipality initiative that collects loose change in foreign currency. Coins of non-dirham denominations are not readily exchanged for dirhams, or used in commercial transactions in the UAE. After sorting, the collected coins — donated by charities and other establishments — will be handed to a welfare foundation, which will have them converted into major currencies to fund its projects, Gulf News had earlier reported.
Lootah welcomed Pepsi World’s cooperation with the Currency Charity Bank, which last week bagged the award for the best implemented idea during the 31st Ideas UK International Awards.
Al Sakka said: “We also cooperate with the municipality in social responsibility projects and all companies and establishments must follow this national policy, which emphasises the social role of major establishments and bodies in the society.”
Bin Fahd said a UAE charity authority has agreed in principle to receive the coins and convert them to currencies of other countries to fund development and charity projects in many countries.
She added that during the sorting of the currencies, it emerged that the British pound was the most common, followed by the euro and the dollar, while the Omani riyal was the Arab currency most held by UAE nationals while travelling as foreign tourists in the region.
Bin Fahd said the coins included historical and commemorative coins, including one issued on the occasion of the marriage of Prince Charles to Princess Diana; and the first dirham series issued on the occasion of the UAE’s union.
She added that a sorting machine has been obtained and the currencies and the coins are being sorted according to their size.
