South African mobile operator group MTN plans to spend more than $3 billion to improve its network infrastructure in Nigeria, the Business Day newspaper has reported.

MTN Nigeria is the West African nation's largest mobile operator with more than 50 million subscribers in that country.

And according to the Business Day newspaper, MTN plans to spend $3 billion over a three year period to improve the quality of its service in its biggest market.

MTN South Africa chief executive officer, Sifiso Dabengwa acknowledged that MTN has challenges with quality of service driven by "high demand" in Nigeria, it was reported.

"We'll continue to invest at this rate in the medium term, and make sure the overall quality of service is acceptable," he said.

This isn't the first attempt by MTN to improve the quality of its service in the Nigerian market.

Earlier this year, the South African headquartered telco signed a five-year managed services agreement with communications technology firm, Ericsson.

The terms of the agreement would see Ericsson take over the day-to-day operations of 75% of MTN Nigeria's network infrastructure, including management, optimisation and field maintenance of the telcos' network.

Speaking at the time of the announcement chief executive officer of MTN Nigeria, Michael Ikpoki said in a statement: "Leaving the management and maintenance of our infrastructure to Ericsson will allow us to focus even more on adding value to the customer experience on our network."

MTN is Africa's largest mobile operator with operations in 22 countries on the continent, in Asia and the Middle East with over 200 million subscribers.