Sub-Saharan Africa has been growing at very low rates in the past few decades. The roles ofrnMalfunctioning institutions, geographic misfortune and lack of integration in explaining this havernbeen a subject of much debate. This study assesses the role of institutions in explaining the slowrnGrowth of Africa. In addition, it explores one of the possible transmission channels, aggregaternTechnical inefficiency, through which institutions affect economic growth. In order to evaluate thernimpact of institutions on economic growth, the neoclassical growth models (Solow and itsrnAugmented version) have been estimated using differenced and systems GMM using data from 35rnselected SSA countries from 1996-2005. Rule of law, government effectiveness, regulatory quality,rnpolitical instability and voice and accountability are found to influence growth of SSA. However,rncontrol over corruption has no relation with growth in the continent. Using stochastic frontierrnanalysis, this study found that only three aspects of governance- regulatory quality, governmentrneffectiveness and control of corruption-matter in influencing technical efficiency. Politicalrnaspects of governance-voice and accountability and political instability-have no relation withrntechnical efficiency. Therefore, Sub-Saharan Africa's poor economic performance (slow growthrnand aggregate technical inefficiency) can in part be attributed to bad governance