Cisco has appointed Ossama Eldeeb as MD for Africa, effective immediately, handing the networking and security company’s continental operations to a 26-year industry veteran who has spent recent years building out its partner channel. Eldeeb will run Cisco’s commercial operations and investment strategy across Africa, working with the company’s local partners, Cisco said in a statement this week. Eldeeb moves up from regional director of Cisco’s partner organisation in that same regionEldeeb moves up from regional director of Cisco’s partner organisation in that same region, where he oversaw routes to market, managed services expansion and the shift to the Cisco 360 partner programme. Before joining Cisco, Eldeeb held senior partner, commercial and sales roles at VMware, AMD and Microsoft. Cisco said it has run 55 projects across Africa under its Country Digital Acceleration programme, which pairs the company with governments on digitalisation and secure infrastructure.