Africa · Nigeria
Yoruba conversational speech dataset
2,000 hours of spontaneous Yoruba 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 | Yoruba |
|---|---|
| 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 Yoruba 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 Yoruba. Read more in our guide to conversational vs. scripted speech data.
Free samples
Audit the Yoruba 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 Yoruba speech data vs. this dataset
| Source | What it is | License | Commercial training |
|---|---|---|---|
| NaijaVoices (Yoruba) (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 |
| Crowdsourced high-quality Yoruba speech data set (SLR86) (opens in a new tab)Google, via OpenSLR | Transcribed high-quality audio of Yoruba sentences recorded by volunteers. | CC BY-SA 4.0 | Allowed |
| Common Voice Scripted Speech (Yoruba) (opens in a new tab)Mozilla Common Voice (Mozilla Data Collective) | Read speech recordings in Yoruba from Mozilla's Common Voice project. | CC0 1.0 | Allowed |
| FLEURS (Yoruba) (opens in a new tab)Google | Read sentences from the FLoRes translation benchmark, recorded in 102 languages. | CC BY 4.0 | Allowed |
These Yoruba sources are read sentences, and NaijaVoices needs a paid membership waiver for commercial use. This dataset is two-person conversation recorded in Nigeria, one channel per speaker.
Licenses as published by each source, checked October 2026. Check the current terms before use.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
What does the Yoruba 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 Yoruba hard for speech recognition?
Yoruba has three tones that change meaning. Careful writing marks them with accents, but most text online leaves them out, so web text is ambiguous. Nigerian speakers also mix in English constantly, and very little transcribed conversational Yoruba is publicly available.
Is there free Yoruba speech data?
Yes, OpenSLR's Yoruba speech set, 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 Yoruba 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 Yoruba 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