Avaya has appointed Nidal Abou-Ltaif as president for Europe, Middle East & Africa, and Asia-Pacific. Abou-Ltaif will drive Avaya’s ‘customer-first’ solution innovation ethos and outcome-based approach, and help customers achieve their digital transformation goals.

Since joining Avaya in 2003 as the regional sales leader for the Middle East, Abou-Ltaif has been instrumental in expanding the company’s presence in the rapidly expanding MEA region and beyond. He has helped drive new, innovative communications technologies and programs that transform businesses and organisations through advanced team engagement and customer engagement solutions.

In early 2014, Abou-Ltaif was selected to lead Avaya’s Global Growth Markets sales theatre, including MEA, Turkey, Russia & CIS, India and SAARC, and Greater China. Under his leadership, the Global Growth Market region (Middle East, Africa, Russia, India and China) was the fastest-growing within Avaya in FY2014, leading the company’s networking business growth globally and achieving impressive performance in the mid-market with Avaya’s iConnect channel engagement program.

Orange has debuted a crowdfunding platform in Côte d’Ivoire through which individuals and charities can appeal for funds, using the operator’s mobile money service to make donations.

The operator partnered with HelloAsso, a crowdfunding platform for charities, to launch Orange Collecte.

A charity that wants to start a fundraising campaign must have an Orange Money account dedicated to the charity, while contributors will need to use Orange Money’s electronic wallet.

At the end of the collection, the amount raised is directly transferred to the Orange Money account of the user who started the fund.

Opening an Orange Money account is free for Orange customers.

The operator claims Orange Money has over 15 million customers, and says €4.5 billion (US$5.07 billion) was transferred through it in 2014 in 13 countries.

In July, Orange reported a 76 per cent increase in revenue from Orange Money for the three months to end of June, compared to the same period in 2014, though it did not reveal the actual revenue figure.

Smile Telecoms, which owns and operates 4G networks in Nigeria, Tanzania, and Uganda, has raised US$365 million in funding, which will be used to expand its networks in new and existing markets.

The company, which operates 800MHz LTE networks, said it aims to offer “clear voice services and have national coverage comparable to the largest 3G network in each of its current countries of operation” by the end of the year.

It also wants to launch its broadband network in Democratic Republic of Congo early in 2016.

The debt and equity financing will be used to accelerate national network roll-outs, including equipment and services provided by Alcatel-Lucent and Ericsson, a full MPLS (multiprotocol label switching) network, a London point of presence, and expanded international backhaul services, as well as to fund operational expenditure and working capital.

The funding brings the total funding committed to Smile since its founding in 2007 to approximately US$600 million.

The most recent funding comprises of US$50 million of equity raised from the Public Investment Corporation on behalf of the Government Employees Pension Fund, and a US$315 million debt facility led by African Export-Import Bank with participation from other banks, including the Development Bank of Southern Africa and Ecobank Nigeria.

Smile’s majority shareholder is Saudi Arabia’s Al Nahla Group.

Further to our announcement on August 18, Etisalat Group has confirmed that its board of directors has approved the controls and procedures governing foreign ownership, based on Etisalat Group’s new articles of association.

As such, trading in Etisalat Group’s shares on the Abu Dhabi Stock Exchange (ADX) by non-UAE individuals (foreign individuals, foreign corporate entities, UAE free zone entities and UAE incorporated entities) will start on September 15. Foreign ownership as defined by Etisalat Group’s articles of association will be limited to 20 per cent of the share capital.

BlackBerry announced a US$425-million cash deal to buy Good Technology.

Both BlackBerry and Good Technology provide mobile device management software that provides security for enterprise, business and government entities. In recent years Good has found success in wooing customers who lean toward Apple’s iOS devices.

Good has annual revenue in the US$200-million range, and BlackBerry will realise close to US$160 million GAAP revenue from Good in the first year, assuming the deal passes regulatory bodies in Canada and the US.

Relations between BlackBerry and Good have been tense at times. In January 2015, after Good announced a new system that would make it possible to measure a smartphone user’s personal and business data usage, BlackBerry posted a version of Good’s release that it had annotated with red ink, questioning its novelty and promoting its own, competing service.