Kojo Annan Businessman and politician, son of UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan. Date of Birth: 07.1973Год Country: Switzerland

Biography of Kojo Annan

Kojo Adeyemo Annan was born in July 1973 in Geneva, Switzerland. He is the son of Kofi Annan, a Ghanaian politician who later became the Secretary-General of the United Nations (1997-2006), and his mother, Titi Alakija, who is Nigerian. Kojo had a younger sister named Ama. In the late 1970s, his parents divorced, and his father moved to Switzerland with the children. He later remarried Nane Maria, a Swiss citizen, and Kojo gained a step-sister, Nina Gronsted de Groot.

Kojo Annan received his primary and secondary education in the United Kingdom, attending Rydal Preparatory School and Rendcomb College. After completing his studies, he returned to Switzerland and enrolled at Keele University. Upon graduating, Kojo moved to Nigeria and became the director of Petroleum Projects International, a company thriving in the oil and gas market in West Africa. From 1995 to 1997, he worked for Cotecna Inspection SA. During his time at Cotecna, there were some controversial aspects of Kojo's biography that were allegedly connected to his father, Kofi Annan.

In 2005, the United States Congress and the independent commission led by Paul Volcker conducted an investigation into the Oil-for-Food Program (OFF). The investigation was prompted by sensational statements published in the English newspaper Financial Times and the Italian magazine Il Sole 24 Ore. The OFF program began in 1996 and involved Iraq exchanging oil for various products and goods during an economic blockade. Cotecna Inspection SA was responsible for overseeing this program. The Volcker Commission discovered that the Saddam Hussein regime had earned approximately $20 billion from the OFF program, partly due to the actions of Cotecna Inspection SA. Additionally, it was revealed that Kojo Annan had $300,000 in an unofficial account at the Swiss bank Coutts. Although Kojo left Cotecna Inspection SA in 1997, he continued to work as a consultant for the company until 1998 and received a salary from them until 2004.

Neither Kojo nor his father have acknowledged any involvement in the Cotecna Inspection SA's activities within the OFF program. In 2006, Kofi Annan stepped down as Secretary-General of the United Nations, and since then, there has been very little information available about his son, Kojo Annan.