Theoretically, structural transformation is important for growth and economic development. Empirical evidence, however, shows that the effect of the structural allocation pattern on growth differs across developing and developed countries. The present study seeks to analyze the effect of structural transformation on socio-economic development in Sub-Saharan Africa. The study adopted the theoretical foundations of the theory of dualism and a productivity decomposition method to specify the model for the effect of structural allocation on socio-economic development. From the decomposition result, the study found that between effects for industrial and services sector contributes positively on the average to productivity in the region, even though the total economy had an overall negative productivity. Furthermore, using the fixed and random effects regression method of estimation for a panel data of 36 Sub-Saharan African countries, the analysis of the study shows that structural transformation effects on socioeconomic development is attributed to only the agricultural sector out of the three sectors included in the model. The industrial and services sector within and between effects do not have any effect on socioeconomic development even though they contribute to economic productivity growth via the between effect.