Ambassador Ekpebike Steve Agbana joined the Foreign Ministry as Second Secretary in 1991 after a 2-year stint as Lecturer II with the University of Jos in North-Central Nigeria. His career as a Foreign Service Officer spans over a thirty-year period. He has held various positions, both within and outside the Ministry, notably, Assistant Director (Programmes), Directorate of Technical Aids Corps (DTAC), Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Abuja; Senior Special Assistant on Special Duties (SSA SD) to His Excellency, the Executive Governor of Bayelsa State; Deputy Director (Multilateral Affairs) and later, Deputy Director/Head of Preventing and Countering Violent Extremisms (P/CVE), Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA), The Presidency, Abuja, and Director in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Prior to his appointment as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to the Republic of Equatorial Guinea, he served in various Nigerian Missions abroad, including the Embassy of Nigeria, Bangkok, Thailand; Embassy/Permanent Mission of Nigeria, Vienna, Austria; Embassy of Nigeria/Permanent Mission of Nigeria to the African Union, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; and Embassy of Nigeria, Algiers, Algeria. While in the office of the National Security Adviser in 2016, Ambassador Agbana was part of the Committee that reviewed the 2014 National Counter Terrorism Strategy that was eventually launched by Mr. President in August 2016.

He was a part of the team that negotiated the Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement (IPPA) between the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the Republic of Austria in 2012. Thereafter, he organized the first ever Business Investment Forum (BIF) in Vienna, Slovakia and Lagos respectively in 2013, which brought the organized private sectors of the respective countries together for business to business (B2B) meeting thereby boosting trade relations between Nigeria and Austria and Nigeria and Slovakia respectively. While serving in Thailand, he initiated discourse on the need to repatriate Nigerian Prisoners incarcerated in various Thai jails. He was a member of the Nigerian Delegation that negotiated the Prison Transfer Agreement (PTA) between Nigeria and Thailand in 2002 and supervised the evacuation of over 700 Nigerian Prisoners from Thai jails to Nigeria between 2003 and 2005.

Ambassador E.S Agbana is a graduate of University of Science and Technology, Port Harcourt, where he earned a Bachelor of Science Degree BSc (Hons) in Applied Chemistry (Biochemistry). He also holds a Master’s Degree in Pharmacology and Toxicology from the University of Benin, Benin City and enjoys reading, writing as well as swimming. He is married, and blessed with children.
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