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Claim: One X user, @_theSeyram, tweeted that there are no official Apple Stores in Africa.
Verdict: True! As of September 2025, no Apple-owned and Apple-operated retail outlets are listed on Apple’s official store pages for any African country.
Full text
On September 17, 2025, the Twitter user @_theSeyram, with 144.6 followers, posted that “There are currently NO official Apple Stores in AFRICA,” a claim that drew replies pointing to local shops that sell Apple devices (for example, stores in Accra, Nigeria, and Johannesburg). The tweet went viral, garnering 114.6K views, 255 retweets, 2.3k likes, and 66 comments.
Kwame Amponsah posted a similar claim on Facebook on September 18.
This has been an ongoing debate due to branded retail outlets presenting themselves as official Apple stores, where customers hardly decipher whether the Apple brand handles such outlets.
Moreover, in the comment section, it was evident that some people couldn’t distinguish between official Apple stores and the unofficial ones operating in Africa.
Reacting to the statement, a Ghanaian X user, @kidd_spicy, who believed that the brand opened the Apple Store in Accra Mall, said: “Are you kidding me? The one for Accra Mall be what? Ohh, I see. No wonder I sent them small problems dem no fi do am.”
Another Nigerian X user, @mafia_ybnl queried, “Not even North, East, or South Africa of all places?”
Debunking the tweet without verification, @Barishandess1 said, “There’s in Morocco, South Africa, Algeria… Kenya”.
DUBAWA decided to investigate the claim because of the interest it has generated on social media.
Verification
On the Apple website, the countries listed as having Apple-operated retail stores are the United States, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China mainland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Italy, Japan, Macao, Malaysia, and Mexico.
The list continues with the Netherlands, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Türkiye, the United Arab Emirates, and the United Kingdom.
No African country made it to the list, indicating clearly that Apple is yet to make that happen.
Additionally, iStore and similar chains are Apple-authorised resellers or premium partners that sell Apple products and offer certified repairs, but are not Apple-owned. Apple treats them differently from its own branded Apple Store locations.
In recent years, Apple has been expanding its retail presence in the Middle East and Asia, including official online and physical retail rollouts in Saudi Arabia and new stores in India. However, some analysts have speculated about a future Apple retail store in Africa, but that has yet to happen.
Lastly, local marketing sometimes uses “Apple” branding loosely, such as “Apple shop” and “Apple experience” for reseller stores, but those are not Apple-owned unless listed on Apple’s retail pages.
Conclusion
The claim that there are no official Apple-owned retail locations in Africa is accurate based on Apple’s official store list and country locator pages as of September 19, 2025.
