MTN Group Limited has appointed its Chief Financial Officer, Ralph Mupita, as Chief Executive Officer, sticking with an internal candidate to replace the departing Rob Shuter as head of Africa’s biggest wireless carrier.

According to Bloomberg, Mupita will take over the role from Sept. 1, Johannesburg-based MTN said in a statement on Wednesday. Shuter will remain available until the end of his fixed-term contract early next year when he leaves to join British operator BT Group Plc as head of the enterprise division.

A graduate of Harvard Business School, Mupita became MTN CFO in 2017 after nearly two decades at a South African insurer, Old Mutual Ltd. Alongside Shuter, he has helped lead a strategy that has seen the carrier dispose of assets such as telecom towers and concentrate on fewer markets, with a plan to pull out of the Middle East announced earlier this month.

The company expects to dispose of its Yemen, Afghanistan and Syria businesses first, with others to follow in a phased manner.