G/Meskel, Atnafu(Dr.)Teshome, Worku2022-08-012023-11-042022-08-012023-11-042022-06http://etd.aau.edu.et/handle/123456789/32425Over the last three decades, economists have paid close attention to the relationship between financial development, trade openness, and economic growth. Despite much research on the subject, empirical data is inconclusive. This is especially true for research that looks at African countries experiences. The main objective of this study was to examine the interaction between financial development, trade openness and economic growth in Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries. The study applies System GMM (One-step system GMM and Two-step system GMM) dynamic panel data models for a sample of 32 Sub-Saharan Africa countries over the period from 2005 to 2019. Model diagnostic tests are used in the study to guarantee that the estimation results are accurate. According to the revealed results financial development and trade openness are both positive and have significant effect on economic growth in Sub-Saharan African countries. Our results also show that trade openness positively affects economic growth directly and indirectly through its positive effect on financial development. Furthermore, our results also show that government spending and inflation have a negative and significant effect on economic growth while, gross capital formation has positive and significant effect on economic growth in Sub-Saharan African countries. Moreover our findings show that there is bidirectional causality between GDP per capita and Trade openness. On the other hand, there is a unidirectional causation from financial development to GDP per capita and from trade openness to financial development. But the reverse is not true. These empirical findings have significant policy implications for governments pursuing financial development and trade openness initiatives to boost economic growth in Sub-Saharan Africa.enfinancial development, trade openness, economic growth, SSA countries, System GMMThesis