Want status in Nigeria? An informal iPhone market offers dreams and despair
Al Jazeera
In Computer Village in Lagos, resellers spruce up old devices for those seeking the coveted status symbol – the iPhone.
Lagos, Nigeria – Kola Alawada shelters from the rain beneath the shade of a phone accessories kiosk in Computer Village in Lagos, his old Android phone with a cracked screen clutched in his hand.
The sprawling, chaotic marketplace in southwestern Nigeria is Africa’s largest technology hub, where streets lined with shopping plazas and informal stalls sell and repair a plethora of devices across a range of price points.
Alawada waits eagerly while James, a phone reseller whose real name we are not using to protect his privacy, haggles with another customer on a WhatsApp call. The 21-year-old student is ready to switch from his old device to an iPhone.
“At school, when I want to [woo] a girl, I borrow my friend’s iPhone 14 Pro Max. If she sees me with an Android, she’ll think I’m broke,” Alawada laughs, though the pressure weighs on him. Soon, he hopes he will not need to borrow any more.
For many young Nigerians, the iPhone is more than a phone – it is a status symbol. Yet, a new one still costs more than most working-class Nigerians can afford. The price of the newly released iPhone 16 is more than 3 million naira – that is more than $1,800 in a country where the minimum monthly wage is $44.
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