Nigerians Decry High Cost of Microsoft Software
- By Abimbola Tooki
- Published May 23rd, 2011
- News
- Unrated
Nigerians from all walks of life are clamouring for considerable review in prices of Microsoft software in the country. They said this has become necessary to address the current high rate of piracy of the software in Nigeria. The call was in response to last week’s release of global study on software piracy.
The global software piracy study released last week by Business Software Alliance (BSA) for 2010 showed that 82 per cent of software deployed on PCs in Nigeria during the year was pirated. Nigeria’s piracy rate has remained steady, rising from 82 per cent in 2006 to 83 per cent in 2008 and 2009 and dropping to 82 per cent in 2010. The value increased from $100 million in 2006 to $225 million in 2010.
Many operators in the information technology industry believe that such reduction in prices would make many more users who are not able to afford the genuine products have access to it. This, in essence, would bring more business to Microsoft. The prevailing market price for a single genuine software ranges from N30,000 and N70,000 depending on the package. This can only be installed on one PC. Pirated ones sell for between N5,000 and N10,000 and can be installed in many systems at a time.
Investigations revealed that major selling points of the software around the country engage in pirating the software because ‘the genuine ones are too expensive for most users’. At the Computer Village and Alaba Market in Lagos, for instance, over 70 per cent of traders who deal in software have both the pirated and genuine Microsoft software on their shelf. The same is true for many IT firms who sell and install computer software.
Mr. Afam Ezekude, director general of the Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC), disclosed that he had instructed that the share of the commission’s funds dedicated to copyright enforcement be tripled and that significant copyright enforcement will be launched any moment from now while planned enforcement and prosecution will be closely monitored.
BusinessWorld Intelligence revealed that the most common way people in Nigeria engage in piracy is to buy a single copy of software and install it on multiple computers including in offices. About 51 percent of PC users surveyed including the same percentage of business decision-makers mistakenly believe this is legal to do.
Indeed, at the current pace, it would take until the year 2050 for the average piracy rate among today’s emerging economies like
Nigeria’s to fall in line with that of today’s developed economies in terms of software piracy. This has broad implications beyond just the software industry, because since software is a tool of production, companies that do not pay for the programmes they use to run their operations have an unfair cost advantage over companies that do, which skews competition.
More than eight out of 10 software programmes installed on personal computers in Nigeria last year were pirated.
Most of this unauthorized software use occurs in otherwise legal businesses that may, for example, buy licences to install a programme on 10 PCs but then install it on 100 or 1,000. In other cases, software piracy involves more overt criminal enterprises selling counterfeit copies of software programmes at cut-rate prices, online or offline.
The cumulative impact of all these forms of software theft is not typically mentioned among the many factors inhibiting economic growth globally. Yet the ripple effects are far-reaching.
They go beyond the multinational software publishing industry itself to affect distributors and service providers in local markets, starving them of spending that would create new jobs and generate much-needed tax revenues for governments.
Curbing piracy has the reverse effect. It sends ripples of stimulus through the whole IT economy. This study documents the extent of that effect in42 countries where 93 percent of the world’s PC software is currently in use.
The study finds that reducing the piracy rate for PC software by 10 percentage points in four years would create $142 billion in new economic activity, more than 80percent accruing to local industries while adding nearly 500,000 new high-tech jobs and generating roughly $32 billion in new tax revenues.
The global software piracy study released last week by Business Software Alliance (BSA) for 2010 showed that 82 per cent of software deployed on PCs in Nigeria during the year was pirated. Nigeria’s piracy rate has remained steady, rising from 82 per cent in 2006 to 83 per cent in 2008 and 2009 and dropping to 82 per cent in 2010. The value increased from $100 million in 2006 to $225 million in 2010.
Many operators in the information technology industry believe that such reduction in prices would make many more users who are not able to afford the genuine products have access to it. This, in essence, would bring more business to Microsoft. The prevailing market price for a single genuine software ranges from N30,000 and N70,000 depending on the package. This can only be installed on one PC. Pirated ones sell for between N5,000 and N10,000 and can be installed in many systems at a time.
Investigations revealed that major selling points of the software around the country engage in pirating the software because ‘the genuine ones are too expensive for most users’. At the Computer Village and Alaba Market in Lagos, for instance, over 70 per cent of traders who deal in software have both the pirated and genuine Microsoft software on their shelf. The same is true for many IT firms who sell and install computer software.
Mr. Afam Ezekude, director general of the Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC), disclosed that he had instructed that the share of the commission’s funds dedicated to copyright enforcement be tripled and that significant copyright enforcement will be launched any moment from now while planned enforcement and prosecution will be closely monitored.
BusinessWorld Intelligence revealed that the most common way people in Nigeria engage in piracy is to buy a single copy of software and install it on multiple computers including in offices. About 51 percent of PC users surveyed including the same percentage of business decision-makers mistakenly believe this is legal to do.
Indeed, at the current pace, it would take until the year 2050 for the average piracy rate among today’s emerging economies like
Nigeria’s to fall in line with that of today’s developed economies in terms of software piracy. This has broad implications beyond just the software industry, because since software is a tool of production, companies that do not pay for the programmes they use to run their operations have an unfair cost advantage over companies that do, which skews competition.
More than eight out of 10 software programmes installed on personal computers in Nigeria last year were pirated.
Most of this unauthorized software use occurs in otherwise legal businesses that may, for example, buy licences to install a programme on 10 PCs but then install it on 100 or 1,000. In other cases, software piracy involves more overt criminal enterprises selling counterfeit copies of software programmes at cut-rate prices, online or offline.
The cumulative impact of all these forms of software theft is not typically mentioned among the many factors inhibiting economic growth globally. Yet the ripple effects are far-reaching.
They go beyond the multinational software publishing industry itself to affect distributors and service providers in local markets, starving them of spending that would create new jobs and generate much-needed tax revenues for governments.
Curbing piracy has the reverse effect. It sends ripples of stimulus through the whole IT economy. This study documents the extent of that effect in42 countries where 93 percent of the world’s PC software is currently in use.
The study finds that reducing the piracy rate for PC software by 10 percentage points in four years would create $142 billion in new economic activity, more than 80percent accruing to local industries while adding nearly 500,000 new high-tech jobs and generating roughly $32 billion in new tax revenues.
