The Saudi Arabian Monetary
Authority (SAMA) participated in the National Festival of Heritage and Culture
(Janadriyah 32) on an independent pavilion, in which it has exhibited coins and
paper money history traded in the Arabian Peninsula. The total number of
visitors to the pavilion exceeded 100 thousands visitors.
SAMA’s pavilion witnessed the inauguration
of a self-service corner to replace the large cash categories with small and
metal coins categories, in an initiative aimed at providing exchange services
to visitors through self-service machines.
The total number of transactions
carried out through the self-service machines by visitors of the pavilion
exceeded 5500 transactions with a total value of about 1.430 million riyals,
distributed at 12285 metal coins of one riyal category, 4605 pieces of two
riyals coin category, 96878 paper cash of 5 riyals category and 92321 of ten
riyals category. The Department of cash supervision at SAMA has persistently
worked on improving the service performance and solve possible issues. For the
first time, SAMA provided a special section for children visiting the festival
to introduce current paper and metal currencies through the participation of
children in the drawing, coloring and use of coins, along with a brief
explanation of the new coins. The pavilion witnessed the participation of more
than 6000 children in the painting and coloring activity.
SAMA sought to educate visitors
and introduce all of its publications, as well as to highlight the security
signs contained in its banknotes, and to identify ways in which they can be
distinguished from the false paper through the distribution of publications
that show the methods of checking banknotes to identify authentic ones, as well
as publication of currencies development, statistical publications and annual
reports of SAMA.
In line with the initiative launched
by SAMA in the fourth quarter of last year under the name “SAMA cares”, the
consumer protection department was present at the Janadriyah Festival in order
to educate the clients of the financial authorities on their rights and
responsibilities, as well as clarifying the communication channels provided by
SAMA for any inquiries and complaints.
As part of SAMA’s
efforts to stimulate and spread the culture of digital payment in the
community, SAMA’s pavilion ensured a special corner for the definition of payments
systems that supervised by SAMA. The latest models of POS devices approved by
Mada, in addition to an explanation of new services provided to traders
including cash mada, mada atheer (NFC) services. The pavilion also included a
description of SADAD’s payment services in relation to the invoicing system and
SADAD account, which aims at pushing the development wheel in the local digital
commerce and facilitate payment measures for traders.