Backcross inbred line (BIL) population developed from an inter-specific cross between Oryza sativa cv. indica and NERICA-L-20 (New Rice for Africa) was used in an randomized completely block design with 2 replications to create and assess genetic variability for yield and its component traits. The mean sum of squares for backcross inbred lines (BILs) were highly significant for yield and its component traits, indicating presence of sufficient amount of variability among each back cross inbred line studied. It is observed that, phenotypic coefficients of variance and genotypic coefficients of variance for most of the traits were either high or moderate except for productivity trait like days to heading, days to 50 per cent flowering, panicle length and plant height at maturity. BILs exhibited high heritability (heritability above 60%) coupled with high genetic advance (genetic advance above 20%) for all the characters under study except in case of days to heading, days to 50% flowering, plant height at maturity, panicle length and grain yield per plant, it was moderate to low in these traits.