He was also the first indigenous Air Force Commander in Sub-Saharan Africa and briefly served as acting Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) in 1962.

De Graft-Hayford returned to Ghana with his parents and younger sister Mary Ruth Ernestina Edmondson (née Hayford) in 1914.

In 1941, after recovering from a boxing-related jaw injury, he passed the Royal Air Force (RAF) medical examination and completed a Non-Commissioned Officer (NCO) course in 1943.

He later pursued higher education as an external student at London University, earning an inter-BSc Economics degree in 1947 and a Diploma in Public Administration in 1951.

Returning to Ghana, de Graft-Hayford worked with the Gold Coast Cocoa Marketing Board from 1948 to 1953, rising to the position of acting general manager.

He collaborated with Hanna Reitsch, Adolf Hitler's former personal pilot, to establish Ghana's first National School of Gliding under Kwame Nkrumah's administration.