”We want to stay in Nepal, we also have great investment potential,” he said. ”The company has no debt on its balance sheet.”
What you should know
Ncell CEO Michael Foley has said that Nepal's telecommunications infrastructure lags far behind that of neighboring countries.
Speaking at the ‘Reviving the Economy, Reestablishing Trust’ session under the ‘Kantipur Conclave-2026’ on Monday, he pointed out that Nepal’s telecommunications technology is about 5 to 8 years behind neighboring countries and much behind the rest of the world.
The government has provided permission and a proper environment for service operation. Foley said that Ncell is ready to invest between 200 and 250 million US dollars in Nepal’s telecommunications sector in the coming days. ‘We want to stay in Nepal, we also have a huge capacity to invest,’ he said, ‘The company has no debt on its balance sheet. We are ready to invest 200 to 250 million dollars to expand the telecommunications infrastructure here.’
The license of Ncell, a foreign-invested service provider that has been operating for the past 22 years, expires in Bhadra, 2086 BS. According to the Telecommunications Act, after the expiration of the license period, the infrastructure (such as towers, equipment, etc.) of service providers with more than 50 percent foreign investment will be transferred to the government.
Foley said that Ncell's goal is to build 5G services, high-speed internet at the level of per-gigabit, and data centers in Nepal. According to him, if the telecommunications network can be organized, it will create new opportunities in the fields of education, health, employment, and entrepreneurship.
He said that some of the recent unstable developments in Nepal will not define Nepal, and he was clear that how society and the state address these challenges in the coming days will ensure the future of investment.
