Gov. Gen. Michaëlle Jean has confirmed her five-year term will not be extended beyond its scheduled end in September.

Governor General Michaëlle Jean boards an airplane Wednesday at Ottawa airport for a 10-day trip to Africa. (Sean Kilpatrick/Canadian Press)Speculation had been rampant that Jean's term would not be extended and that the government was actively looking for a replacement.

Jean, having just arrived in Dakar, Senegal, for a 10-day state visit to sub-Saharan Africa, said she intends to keep working until her term is up on Sept. 27.

"I'm very focused right now on what I want to achieve until the end of my tenure, which will come at the end of September," Jean told a small group of Canadian journalists who are accompanying her on the trip.

Senegal is the first of four countries the Governor General will visit on her last state visit to the continent. From there she will travel to Congo, Rwanda and Cape Verde. It is Jean's third trip to Africa.

"Returning to this continent is a new opportunity to bear witness to an Africa that is full of excitement and promise, an Africa called to take its rightful place in the world," Jean said before her departure.

The trip coincides with the 50th anniversary of independence of a number of African nations following what Jean called "decades of colonization."

"I am looking forward to renewing my dialogue with the women, men and youth of Africa, which is the cradle of humanity, yet has been so cruelly mistreated by history," Jean wrote in her blog.

Jean has previously visited Mali, Morocco, Algeria, Ghana, South Africa and Liberia.

She is accompanied by nine delegates from backgrounds including trade, economic development and journalism.

With files from CBC News