Maize plays significant roles in the economies of Sub-Saharan Africa, from which a larger percentage of the populace derive their source of livelihood. However, the emergence of the fall armyworm menace is posing serious threat to the cultivation and productivity of maize in Africa. As a polyphagous pest, the FAW is capable of being host to over 80 species of crops including maize the main staple food crop of the sub-region. Host plant resistance offers a safe, reliable and cost-effective control to the fall armyworm challenge. Combining ability analysis is required to identify superior genetic material and determine the gene action responsible for their inheritance. The diallel mating design was used to generate the progenies by employing the Griffing’s method in RCBD. These progenies were then evaluated for their tolerance level against fall armyworm leave feeding damage. The analysis of variance for the combining ability revealed highly significant differences (P<0.001) among GCA and SCA effects indicating both additive and non-additive gene actions controlled the inheritance of the traits among the maize lines. Best general and specific combiners for fall armyworm resistance were identified as the lines with negative GCA and SCA values. Negative GCA values indicate the ability of inbred lines to transmit genes for resistance to the progenies. The positive GCA values for the trait imply that the inbred lines are susceptible and are therefore capable of transmitting genes for susceptibility to their progenies.