Drawing on large-sample surveys in five comparable Sub-Saharan African countries,the authors have produced a first-ever measurement of the inequality of opportunities in Africa, alongside inequalities in resources and living standards. The authors confirm the prevalence of pronounced inequalities amongst the region’s countries, but also show that there are considerable differences in the structures of these inequalities. These differences stem primarily from earnings differentials between the agricultural and non-agricultural sectors, and from the wage scale of non-agricultural groups by status and level of education. Ghana stands out as one country with particularly small earnings differentials between social groups and, consequently, fairly small income inequalities.Moreover, in countries where income inequality is relatively low, such as Ghana and Uganda, intergenerational educational and occupational mobility and the equality ofopportunity for income between social origins are seen to be greater than in countrieswith higher levels of inequality, such as Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea and Madagascar, where intergenerational mobility and equality of opportunity are much more restricted.