Piracy in Ethiopia costs Microsoft 240 million birr a year
Reporter, Ethiopia
February 14, 2010
Birhanu Fikade
Microsoft loses about 240 million birr annually in Ethiopia due to software piracy.
Andrew Waititu, licensing and compliance managers for Microsoft in East and Southern Africa, in an exclusive interview, told the Reporter that the loss was due to the fact that 86% of the computers in Ethiopia do not run genuine softwares. "Out of every 10 computers only one gets a genuine software to operate."
The figure would be higher if the cost of locally developed softwares and sales of pirated softwares were factored in.
One of the reasons for the prevalence of pirated software is that Microsoft depends on resellers to make its product available locally. About 95% of the company's products are sold through resellers in Africa.
These resellers are unable to compete with the cheaper price tags of pirated softwares.
"The price difference makes customers go for pirated softwares and they are hard to differentiate from the genuine ones," Andrew said.
Asked about the large difference in prices of the software, he said, "The price is not what really matters. Microsoft is working to provide a competitive price for Africa." He added that the provision was held though a regional office that is specifically established for Africa.
Genuine softwares in Africa are sold for less than 50 dollars. "If a customer buys a computer at a cost of 11,000 birr, then adding 400 or 500 birr for a software is not a big amount," he said when asked about the high cost of Microsoft softwares.
He said that he had observed vendors of pirated Microsoft products also offer other softwares free of charge that require licensing.
With the aim of reducing its loss due to piracy, Microsoft held training for law enforcement agencies, businesses, banks and other concerned entities here last week.