MTN plans $1bn spend on Nigeria telecoms infrastructure

6 January 2012

Africa's largest telecommunications firm is planning to spend more than $1 billion (£644 million) on improving Nigeria's network.

MTN Group will use the money to improve the country's telecoms infrastructure as it looks to meet regulatory demands to improve services, reports Engineering Times.

A spokesman for the firm's Nigerian arm, Akinwale Goodluck, told the news source that it had already invested $1 billion on network infrastructure in 2011 and that it plans to spend at least the same amount this year.

The Nigerian Communications Commission last year reprimanded the Johannesburg-based company for failing to meet its quality of service requirements in Nigeria, its biggest market.

MTN has since said that it must meet regulatory targets to improve service in the country - where it has 40 million subscribers - or it will face fines.

It was recently announced that telecoms infrastructure in South Africa had been improved after the installation of a 500 km fibre optic network project.