The aim of this article is to analyse the role of trade on sub-Saharan countries growth considering the effect of governance and ethnic diversity. We start by the framework of the augmented Solow growth model in which we include a set of control variables like trade as openness measure. The estimated model uses Pooled Mean Group technique on a sample of 44 countries of sub-Saharan Africa during 1980-2017. It emerges that trade has a positive and significant influence on per capita income in the sub-Saharan zone. This positive effect can also be empowered by improving the level of governance and by ethnic fragmentation. This fact shows the importance of a good political governance and the mastering of trade policies to gain more from trade openness for these countries.