African bermudagrass, C. transvaalensis, is an economically important warm-season turf grass species mainly used for hybridization with common bermudagrass C. dactylon var. dactylon to produce superior clonally propagated turf cultivars. However, few simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers are currently available in the taxon. Accordingly, the objectives of this study were to develop and characterize a large set of SSR markers. Genomic DNA of C. transvaalensis ‘4200TN 24-2’ from the Oklahoma State University (OSU) nursery was extracted for construction of four SSR-enriched genomic libraries with [CA]n, [GA]n, [AAG]n, and [AAT]n as core repeat motifs. A total of 3064 SSR-enriched clones were sequenced at the OSU core facility. The sequences were categorized into singletons and contiguous sequences to exclude redundancy by CAP3 program. From the SSR sequences, 1426 unique primer pairs (PPs) were designed by SSR Locator software following comparison with previously developed SSR markers using a nucleotide basic local alignment tool. Of the designed primer pairs, 981 (68.8%) were effective in reliable amplifications in target regions in donor DNA. Polymorphisms of 544 markers effective in all eight C. transvaalensis plants were up to 93%.  Inheritance of the effective SSRs was examined in two C. transvaalensis plants ‘T577’, ‘Uganda’ and their six progeny showing that 917 SSR PPs amplified heritable alleles. The SSR markers developed in the study are the first large set of co-dominant markers in African bermudagrass, and should be highly valuable for its genetic and breeding research.