Africa · Nigeria
Hausa conversational speech dataset
2,000 hours of spontaneous Hausa conversations recorded in Nigeria across 200 vetted native speakers. Dual-channel audio with time-aligned transcripts, speaker metadata (age, gender, region, device), and full chain-of-consent documentation. Licensed for commercial ASR, TTS, and voice AI training.
Dataset specifications
| Language | Hausa |
|---|---|
| Recorded in | Nigeria |
| Speech type | Spontaneous two-person conversations |
| Volume | 2,000 hours |
| Speakers | 200 vetted native speakers |
| Audio | Dual-channel (one channel per speaker) |
| Transcripts | Time-aligned, human-verified |
| Metadata | Age, gender, region, recording device |
| License | Commercial (training & evaluation) |
| Price | $65 per hour of audio |
Need more hours, another dialect or your own recording setup? We collect speech data to spec.
Built for
Training and evaluating speech models that must handle real Hausa speech:
- Automatic speech recognition (ASR / STT)
- Text-to-speech & voice synthesis prosody
- Voice agents and IVR for Nigeria
- Speaker diarization & turn-taking models
- Speech LLM / audio-understanding fine-tuning
Why conversational data?
Models trained on read speech consistently underperform on spontaneous audio. Disfluencies, overlap, and natural speech rates aren’t in the training distribution. This dataset closes that gap for Hausa. Read more in our guide to conversational vs. scripted speech data.
Free samples
Audit the Hausa data yourself
Share your company email and we’ll email you representative audio, matching transcripts, and the metadata schema. Check audio quality, transcript accuracy, and speaker diversity before you spend a dollar.
Public alternatives
Public Hausa speech data vs. this dataset
| Source | What it is | License | Commercial training |
|---|---|---|---|
| NaijaVoices (Hausa) (opens in a new tab)NaijaVoices project | Expert-written sentences read by volunteer voice donors in Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba; over 1,800 hours from more than 5,000 speakers across the three languages. | CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 by default; a commercial-use waiver comes with paid membership (donation of $5,000 or more) | Paid license |
| Common Voice Scripted Speech (Hausa) (opens in a new tab)Mozilla Common Voice (Mozilla Data Collective) | Read speech recordings in Hausa from Mozilla's Common Voice project. | CC0 1.0 | Allowed |
| FLEURS (Hausa) (opens in a new tab)Google | Read sentences from the FLoRes translation benchmark, recorded in 102 languages. | CC BY 4.0 | Allowed |
Common Voice and FLEURS are read, and NaijaVoices' read sentences need a paid membership waiver for commercial use. This dataset is two-person conversation recorded in Nigeria.
Licenses as published by each source, checked October 2026. Check the current terms before use.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
What does the Hausa speech dataset include?
2,000 hours of spontaneous two-person conversations from 200 vetted native speakers recorded in Nigeria, delivered as dual-channel audio with time-aligned transcripts, speaker metadata (age, gender, region, device), and consent documentation.
What makes Hausa hard for speech recognition?
Hausa is tonal and has long and short vowels, but standard spelling marks neither, so text alone doesn't tell a model how a word sounds. It also has implosive and ejective consonants and borrows heavily from Arabic and English.
Is there free Hausa speech data?
Yes, Common Voice and FLEURS are free for commercial use. NaijaVoices needs a paid license. This dataset is spontaneous two-person conversation recorded in Nigeria, with speaker metadata, one channel per speaker and signed commercial-use consent.
Can I use this Hausa dataset commercially?
Yes. The dataset is licensed for commercial use, including training ASR, TTS, and other voice-AI models. Every speaker has signed explicit commercial-use consent, and we provide the full consent chain for your legal review.
How much does the Hausa speech dataset cost?
Pricing is $65 per hour of audio. Volume discounts are available for full-dataset and multi-language purchases. Contact us for a quote.
Can I evaluate samples before buying?
Yes. Request samples with your company email, and we'll email you representative audio files and matching transcripts so your team can audit quality before committing.
$60/hr