Fish telemetry is a widely established technique in developed countries. However, in underdeveloped regions, its use is generally lacking. We briefly present common fish telemetry methods used globally and then reviewed their use in African inland freshwater ecosystems. We highlight telemetry studies' progress in African inland waters and evaluate its potential applications in various fields. These include the management of water resources, ecosystem response to changes, fish movement, river connectivity, conservation of species, management of fisheries, fish passages efficiency and monitoring freshwater ecosystems in Africa. We found 53 studies that used fish telemetry in inland African waters across eight countries. Radio telemetry (81%) was favoured over acoustic telemetry (11%), while the remaining studies included reviews and procedural tagging studies. Telemetry was used on 25 native fish species and two non-native species in Africa across various families and included two African native fishes studied in European laboratories. In Africa, the two most studied genera were Hydrocynus spp. (n = 19) and the Labeobarbus spp. (n = 19). Compared with developed countries, the paucity of African freshwater telemetry studies is of concern, especially as fish movement is important for water resource management decisions across Africa. Finally, we highlight the benefits derived from telemetry studies as outweighing the costs and can continue to provide evidence-based data to manage Africa’s water resources.

鱼类遥测是发达国家中广泛使用的技术。但是，在欠发达地区，通常不使用它。我们简要介绍了全球使用的常见鱼类遥测方法，然后回顾了它们在非洲内陆淡水生态系统中的使用。我们重点介绍遥测技术在非洲内陆水域的进展，并评估其在各个领域的潜在应用。其中包括水资源管理，生态系统对变化的反应，鱼类流动，河流连通，物种保护，渔业管理，鱼类通过效率以及监测非洲的淡水生态系统。我们在八个国家/地区的非洲内陆水域发现了53项使用鱼类遥测技术的研究。无线电遥测（81％）比声学遥测（11％）更受青睐，其余的研究包括评论和程序标记研究。遥测技术用于非洲不同家庭的25种本地鱼类和2种非本地鱼类，其中包括在欧洲实验室研究的2种非洲本地鱼类。在非洲，研究最多的两个属是水单胞菌属。（n = 19）和Labeobarbus物种。（n = 19）。与发达国家相比，非洲淡水遥测研究的匮乏值得关注，特别是因为鱼类的移动对于整个非洲的水资源管理决策至关重要。最后，我们着重指出遥测研究带来的好处超过了成本，并且可以继续提供基于证据的数据来管理非洲的水资源。