Over the years, the African continent has been severely plagued by disease outbreaks, most of which have resulted in devastating pandemics. Despite having the greatest burden and impact of these disease outbreaks, regional efforts to develop and manufacture vaccines in the continent have been inadequate, with a potential impact on pandemic preparedness and readiness efforts in the continent. Given that disease outbreaks are still likely to occur in the future, we discuss the urgent need to intensify vaccine development and manufacturing in Africa based on the lessons learnt from emerging pandemics.