Aquaculture in Nigeria: Increasing Income, Diversifying Diets and Empowering Women. Response to the criteria for Nigeria scoping study to inform the Go/No-go decision by BMGF and WorldFish

Abstract

At the end of 2018, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) signed an investment agreement targeting 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 Nigerian component of the investment is an 18-month scoping investment, intended to explore the potential for aquaculture to contribute more significantly to the country’s development goals.

WorldFish and BMGF jointly developed a set of assessment criteria for the Nigeria scoping exercise to inform Go/No-go decision by BMGF and WorldFish, for continuing activities and investments in the aquaculture sector in Nigeria following the initial 18-month scoping investment. The scoping study has identified several areas for future investment, and these “Go/No-go” criteria are intended to support the decision-making process on whether to continue investment in areas of potential future impact and, if so, which areas to prioritize. These criteria consist of several questions requiring answers to whether the outputs, outcomes, milestones, and research questions of the project have been achieved.

This document provides answers to those questions posed in the Go/No-go decision criteria, based on the results (knowledge, information and data) obtained through the quantitative surveys, focus group discussions, key informant interviews, thematic reviews, private sector and stakeholder discussions, as well as fish sector foresight modeling conducted by WorldFish during the past 18 months. In this document, we tried to provide answers, with links provided to evidence in the WorldFish Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) system. More details, including recommendations for investment opportunities towards inclusive aquaculture growth, increasing inland fisheries production, increasing the accessibility and affordability of fish in poor, improving smallholder income, and expanding smallholder aquaculture are provided in the accompanying Scoping Report ‘Nigerian Fish Futures’.