Bambara groundnut (Vigna subterranea (L.) Verdc.) is a highly nutritious legume crop supporting sustainable food systems in arid and semi-arid agroecologies. However, modern varieties with high yield and desirable product profiles are yet to be bred in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Therefore, this study aimed to determine the combining ability effects and gene action in Bambara groundnut for yield and related traits to identify the best parents and derived families for breeding and genetic advancement. Ten complementary and contrasting parents were selected and crossed using a 10 x 10 half-diallel mating design, and 45 progenies developed. The progenies and parents were field evaluated using a 5 x 11 alpha lattice design with two replications in two contrasting locations in South Africa. Data was collected on agronomic traits and subjected to statistical analyses to compute genetic parameters. The results revealed that the genotype x location interaction effect was significant (P < 0.001) for the studied agronomic traits. The general combining ability (GCA) effects were significant (P < 0.05) for the number of nodes per stem, number of secondary branches, number of pods per plant and seed length, while the specific combining ability (SCA) effects were significant (P < 0.05) for yield per plant and assessed traits. A relatively lower Baker's ratio were recorded for most assessed traits at the F1, including grain yield per plant, indicating the preponderance of non-additive gene effects conditioning the traits. The parental lines such as ARC Bamb25, ARC Bamb8 and ARC Bamb55 recorded positive and desirable GCA effects for grain yield per plant and serve as suitable genetic resources for future breeding. The families ARC25 x ARC8, ARC44 x ARC9 and ARC6 x ARC9 had desirable SCA effects for grain yield per plant. Therefore, the newly developed crosses with high yield potential are recommended for selection and genetic advancement using pedigree or pure line selection methods for variety registration and commercialisation.