This aquaculture investment targets Bangladesh and Nigeria, two countries where the growth of aquaculture provides significant opportunities to enhance the income of smallholder families, the diets and nutrition of vulnerable women and children and the empowerment of women. The 18-month scoping investment in Nigeria recognizes the potential for aquaculture to contribute more significantly to the country’s development goals, but it is more exploratory in nature. Nigeria is the second-largest aquaculture producer in Africa, with a high demand and preference for fish among many consumers. Unlike Bangladesh, where some positive progress has been made, the role and potential of aquaculture to achieve goals for smallholder income, dietary diversification, and women's empowerment have not yet been met in Nigeria. Building on earlier scoping undertaken by WorldFish in 2017, the investment will enable WorldFish to draw on lessons from Bangladesh, and its global network of researchers and partnerships, to fill critical gaps that remain in the knowledge base in Nigeria to provide an evidence base from which informed future investment decisions can be made. The project has an immediate objective of delivering, within 18 months of start-up, a scoping of aquaculture sector bottlenecks, based on fish production, consumption and value chain models that have high potential to positively impact smallholder income, nutrition, youth employment and women’s empowerment at scale.