Lieutenant General Akwa enlisted into the Ghana Military Academy in October 1975 and continued with his training at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, United Kingdom, from January 1976 to March 1977. He was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant on 24 March 1977 and was first posted to the 1st Battalion of Infantry, as a Platoon Commander. Among the key appointments he has held include: Adjutant/Intelligence Officer, 1st Battalion of Infantry; Aide-de-Camp to the Chief of the Defence Staff; Adjutant and Company Commander, 2nd Battalion of Infantry; General Staff Officer, Grade III (Operations and Training) at the Headquarters 1 Infantry Brigade Group – now Headquarters Southern Command; Deputy Assistant Adjutant & Quartermaster General (DAA & QMG); Directing Staff, Ghana Armed Forces Command & Staff College (Junior Division); Course Commander, Ghana Military Academy; Deputy Army Secretary, Army Headquarters and Commanding Officer, 2nd Battalion of Infantry. Whilst in command of the 2nd Battalion, he was appointed as the Military Assistant to the Minister for Defence and thereafter became the Army Secretary at the Army Headquarters.
Gen Akwa was appointed to serve as the Aide-de-Camp (ADC) to the former President John Agyekum Kuffuor from 2005, till the end of his term in January 2009.[3]
Between 2009 and 2012, the then Brig Gen Akwa was appointed Commander of the Ghana Military Academy. The Ghana Military Academy is a highly regarded and reputable tri-service academy which trains potential cadets for commissioning into the Officer Corp of the various arms of the Ghana Armed Forces.
General Akwa has extensive UN peacekeeping experience. Between October 1977 – March 1978 he served with the United Nations Emergency Force II (UNEF II) as a Platoon Commander, in the Sinai Desert. He was a Personnel Officer with the 24th Ghana Battalion in South Lebanon as part of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL). He also served as a Military Observer with the United Nations Iraq – Kuwait Observation Mission (UNIKOM) in the immediate aftermath of the First Gulf War. Whilst with UNIKOM, he was re-deployed to serve with the United Nations Military Liaison Office in the former Yugoslavia (UNMLO-Y) prior to the insertion of the United Nations Protection Force (UNPROFOR). He also served as the Deputy Commanding Officer of the Ghana Battalion as part of the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC). In his last UN mission, he served as the Western Brigade Commander/Ghanaian Contingent Commander with the United Nations Stabilisation Mission in Congo (MONUSCO). In this appointment, he commanded the largest sector of the MONUSCO operational area (covering six of the eleven Provinces of the country) in a highly dynamic, multicultural and multilingual environment.
General Akwa was appointed Commandant of the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC) in Teshie. He served as Commandant until he was reassigned as Chief of Army Staff at the Army HQ, Burma Camp. He was succeeded by AVM GS Evans.
Maj Gen Akwa was appointed Chief of Army Staff on July 1, 2016, by former president John Mahama. He succeeded Maj Gen Adusei-Poku who had retired from active duty and was succeeded by Maj Gen Ayamdo in February 2017.[3]
In February 2017, President Akufo-Addo announced the appointment of the then Maj Gen Akwa as the next Chief of the Defense Staff (CDS) replacing Air Marshal Oje who was due to retire. In lieu of his new appointment, he was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant General in the Ghana Army. In 2021, it was announced through a communique from the Office of the President that Lt Gen Akwa had come to the end of his duty tour and would be retiring effective 5 February 2021. He was succeeded by Rear Admiral Seth Amoama who was then the Chief of Naval Staff.
