Industrialization is an unavoidable stage in the economic development of all countries，and manufacturing is the core of industrialization. Over the past two decades，Africa’s industrialization has made slow progress，especially the development of manufacturing，which has made limited contribution to Africa’s growth，employment and poverty reduction. From 2012 to 2019，the percentage of Africa’s manufacturing in the world’s total in terms of value added remained a low level of about 2%. Since February 2020，the spread of COVID-19 pandemic to Africa has brought devastating effects on the weak manufacturing industry，mainly shown as the stoppage of production caused by the epidemic prevention and control measures，the shortage of inputs caused by the disruption of supply chain，the decline of orders and the decline in income resulting from the shrinking demand. In 2021，with the gradual improvement of the global epidemic situation，African manufacturing industry is coming out of the trough and showing a restorative growth. At present，African manufacturing industry still has the conventional advantages of abundant labor supply and great market potential，but also faces some new opportunities，such as the rising demand for pharmaceutical products，the acceleration of regional integration，and the vigorous development of digital economy. In the process of fighting against the COVID-19，African governments have shown a higher efficiency of action，and more deeply realized the importance of economic diversification and enhancing the ability of independent development. If African governments can take this opportunity to continuously improve their governance capacity and provide more effective policy support，African manufacturing is expected to gain new momentum in the post COVID-19 era.