This Insight brief captures the learnings from a World Café event hosted by WorldFish under its Asia–Africa BlueTech Superhighway project (AABS) at the 2024 Ocean Innovation Africa conference, held in Cape Town, South Africa, 20–22 February. The event, titled “Scaling innovations to transform aquatic food systems in Africa”, aimed to convene and connect diverse stakeholders on the challenge of transforming aquatic food systems in Africa, and to learn from their insights and knowledge to inform AABS activities and improve partnerships.