MTN Nigeria has grown its Nigerian subscriber base by 34% to 30.8 million during the year ended December 2009.

In its final results for the year statement, released yesterday, the MTN Group said that the Nigerian operation performed well for the period under review.

The success of MTN Nigeria during the year is attributed to "the large capital investment made to improve network quality and capacity together with the efficient restructure of the sales and distribution channels".

Nigeria's largest mobile operator has also increased its market share in the country to 49,6%.

The statement further read that "high network rollout and investments made to improve the quality and capacity of the network continued throughout 2009. MTN Nigeria added 1,220 base transceiver stations (BTS) during the period, bringing the total BTS count to 5,996 at December 2009. 561 3G sites were rolled out during the year, completing phase 2 of the 3G rollout plan.

"MTN's data propositions gained momentum, with 25,363 active Blackberry subscribers at the end of December 2009 and 78,331 data modems being sold during the year. Some 1,562 km of new backbone and 110 km of metro fibre were introduced during the year. The WACS submarine cable consortium, of which MTN is a member, has been granted a landing licence in Nigeria."