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The Ambassador

HIS EXCELLENCY LT GEN OBED BOAMAH AKWA (RTD)GHANA’S AMBASSADOR TO ARAB REPUBLIC OF EGYPT

H.E. Lt Gen Obed Boamah Akwa (rtd), was born on 20th June, 1955.   He had his General Certificate of Education ‘O’ and ‘A’ Levels at Mpraeso Secondary School in 1973 and Sekondi College in 1975, respectively.  He proceeded to the Ghana Military Academy in October 1975 and continued with his basic officer training at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, UK.  He was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant into the Ghana Armed Forces in March 1977.  He pursued further studies in various tertiary institutions, earning him a Certificate in Public Administration from the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration, Accra, Ghana, in 1989; Master of Science (MSc) in Defence and Strategic Studies from the Madras University in India in 1997; and Master of Science (MSc) in Global Security from Cranfield University in the UK in 2003.

Prior to his appointment as the Ambassador of the Republic of Ghana to the Arab Republic of Egypt, with concurrent accreditation to Lebanon, Sudan and the State of Palestine, Amb. Akwa served with sterling accomplishment in the Ghana Armed Forces with a total reckonable service of forty-six (46) years, the longest in the annals of the Service.  He held key leadership, operational, administrative and managerial positions during his service in the Ghana Armed Forces.

From 1999 to 2001, Amb. Akwa was the Commanding Officer of the 2nd Infantry Battalion of the Ghana Army.  He also became the Military Assistant to the Minister of Defence, Hon. Dr. Kwame Addo-Kufuor; the Army Secretary at the Ghana Army Headquarters and thereafter as the Aide-de-Camp to His Excellency President John Agyekum Kufuor, former President of the Republic of Ghana from 2005 to 2009.  In this appointment, apart from being responsible for the personal security and coordination of the daily routine of the President, he  also contributed to policy discourses on deepening security sector reforms, particularly on the military being appropriately-sized and civilian-subordinated.

From 2009 to 2012, Amb. Akwa was the Commander of the Ghana Military Academy, and from 2013 to 2016, as the Commandant of the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC); an ECOWAS and globally-recognized Training Centre of Excellence for education and research in peace and security.  He also held the position of Chief of the Army Staff of the Ghana Army from July 2016 to February 2017.  His many years of dedicated and diligent service led to his appointment to the high office of Chief of the Defence Staff of the Ghana Armed Forces in February 2017 until February 2021.

During his service in the Ghana Armed Forces, Amb. Akwa garnered great worth of experience in peacekeeping. He represented Ghana in various peacekeeping operations. He served with the United Nations Emergency Force II (UNEF II) in Egypt (Sinai Desert) as a Platoon Commander from October 1977 to March 1978.  He also served with the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) from June 1985 to January 1986 as a Personnel Officer.  From April 1991 to April 1992, Amb. Akwa served as a Military Observer with United Nations Iraq-Kuwait Observation Mission (UNIKOM), during which time he was re-deployed to serve with the United Nations Military Liaison Team in the former Yugoslavia (UNMLO-Y) to prepare the grounds for the insertion of the United Nations Protection Force (UNPROFOR).  Between March – October 1993, he was the Second-in-Command of the Ghanaian Battalion that served with the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC).  Furthermore, he served as the Western Brigade Commander/Ghanaian Contingent Commander with the United Nations Organisation Stabilisation Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUSCO) from January 2012 to January 2013.

Amb. Akwa has served on major national, regional and continental Boards/Committees on security matters.  He was a Member of the National Security Council and the Armed Forces Council of Ghana from 2017 to 2020.  He was also a Member of the African Union Committee of the Chiefs of the Defence Staff from 2017 to 2021 as well as a Member of the ECOWAS Committee of the Chiefs of the Defence Staff, where he chaired the Committee from November 2020 to January 2021.

Throughout his career, Amb. Akwa distinguished himself, earning him national and international honours and awards.  He was awarded the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) by the Government of Liberia in February 2020; the Member of the Order of the Volta (MV) Security Division by Ghana Government and the Long Service and Efficiency Medal for unblemished service with the Ghana Armed Forces.

Amb. Akwa is married with four children.

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