Himal Press 
KATHMANDU: Nepal’s smartphone market has witnessed significant growth in the first 10 months of the fiscal year 2024/25, with imports rising by 16.8% to nearly 1.8 million units compared to the previous year, according to the recent foreign trade data.
The country imported 1,785,654 units of smartphones valued at Rs 28.76 billion in the first 10 months of 2024/25, ending mid-May. The growth stood at 19.8% in terms of import value. The government mobilized Rs 5.36 billion in revenue through smartphone imports during the review period.
Nepal imported 1.52 million units worth Rs 24.01 billion in the same period of the previous fiscal year. This means the country is on track to surpass the previous year’s totals, both in terms of units and import value.
China continues to dominate Nepal’s smartphone market, accounting for the lion’s share of imports. In the first 10 months of 2024/25, Nepal imported 1.42 million units from China, valued at Rs 19.92 billion. This represented 79.5% of total units and 69.3% of the import value. India followed as the second-largest source, with 357,807 units worth Rs 8.31 billion imported during the period.
Chinese brands such as Xiaomi, Redmi, Oppo, RealMe and OnePlus, as well as Apple and the South Korean brand, Samsung, are immensely popular in Nepal. Samsung and some of these Chinese brands also come from India as they have manufacturing facilities in the southern neighbor as well.
