Zimbabwe tops in software piracy

Posted on Thursday 16 July 2009 - 08:34
AfricaNews ICT desk
The Business Software Alliance (BSA) has revealed that software piracy on personal computers (PC) in Zimbabwe is the highest in Sub-Saharan Africa. Half of the 110 countries studied, according to BSA, saw piracy rates drop while only 15% increased.
The report also revealed that industry losses due to software piracy in Nigeria rose to USD132 million in 2008, Itnewsafrica.com reported.According to BSA, in sub-Saharan Africa the highest piracy countries were Zimbabwe 92%, Cameroon 83% and Nigeria 83%. Among the lowest piracy countries were Reunion- 40%, Mauritius- 57% and Senegal-79%.The sixth annual global PC software piracy study released by the BSA - an international association representing the global software industry covering 110 countries was conducted independently by IDC, the information technology (IT) industry’s leading global market research and forecasting firm.A recent study by the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) also named Zimbabwe as one of seven countries with the highest rates of illegal software usage. The other six countries are Georgia , Bangladesh , Armenia , Sri Landa, Azerbaijan and Moldova .According to the report: “Software piracy grew last year, accounting for 41 percent of all PC software installed, with losses to companies estimated at $53 billion”.