Plant breeding can play an important role in buffering crop production systems against the vagaries of climate by producing climate smart varieties that are more resilient to harsh environments while using limited resources efficiently. However, conventional breeding takes ~10–12 years to complete the entire breeding cycle (from the selection of parental genotypes to the registration of new varieties). These long generation times impede the ability of breeders to develop new adapted cultivars swiftly in response to farmers’ immediate needs. The advent of speed breeding (SB) has opened opportunities to improve crops faster, especially in Africa, where there is a disproportionate burden to achieve food security. SB is a plant breeding tool that significantly reduces generation time by manipulating environmental conditions for the rapid advancement of the crop cycle. Growth is accelerated from the vegetative to the reproductive stage, allowing several plant generations to be grown in a single year. This allows rapid evaluation and selection of desirable traits. However, SB protocols have mainly been developed for long day (LD) crops with only a few protocols developed for short day (SD) crops. SD crops are the predominant food crops in Africa and SB can increase the efficiency of plant breeding pipelines and shorten the breeding cycle to ensure early variety release and more flexibility in responding to farmers’ needs in Africa. Although clear benefits are achievable, integration of SB in Africa will require infrastructure development as well as skills training of plant breeders to translate them to tangible benefits that will contribute to sustainable food production.