Top Ten pirates in Africa

The Business Software Alliance (BSA) has released the figures of their latest findings into piracy across the globe, and some statistics are shocking.

The global piracy rate has dropped to 42%. The global piracy rate dropped by 1 point from 2009 to 42%, meaning that 42% of the all the software in the world is pirated. Half of the 116 economies studied in the 2010 report noted that they had a piracy rating of 62% or higher, costing billions each year.

While Georgia, close to Russia, has the highest piracy rate in the world with 93%, Zimbabwe is second on the list, with 91% of all the software in the country pirated. The Top Ten African countries with the highest piracy rates are:

1. Zimbabwe (91%)

2. Libya (88%)

3. Algeria (83%)

4. Zambia (82%)

5. Nigeria (82%)

6. Cameroon (82%)

7. Kenya (79%)

8. Ivory Coast (79)

9. Botswana (79%)

10. Senegal (78%)

South Africa has been fortunate enough to have had a low piracy rate of around 35% for the last five years, and is also the country with the lowest piracy rate in Africa. But that doesn’t put South Africa in the clear.

Although SA has a low piracy rate of 35%, the commercial value of the pirated software is enough to push the country into the 25th spot on the list of highest commercial value of pirated software for 2010, valued at $513 million. South Africa is also the only African country on the list.

The nation with the highest value of pirated software is to no surprise the USA with $9.5 billion, followed by China with $7.7 billion, Russia with $2.8 billion, India with $2.7 billion and Brazil with $2.6 billion. It’s rather worrying that China, Russia, India and Brazil make up the BRICS nations with South Africa.

Source: http://www.itnewsafrica.com/2011/09/top-ten-highest-piracy-rates-in-africa/