The most comprehensive Igbo speech dataset on HuggingFace - natural, real-world Igbo from native speakers across Southeast Nigeria and the diaspora.

Dataset Overview

Total audio samples: 36 recordings
Total duration: ~22 minutes
Primary region: Nigeria (Owerri, Southeast Nigeria)
Context: Natural spontaneous speech (free_speech)
Audio format: WAV files
Sample rate: 48 kHz
License: CC BY-NC 4.0 (free for research, non-commercial use)

Language Context

Igbo (Asụsụ Igbo) is one of Nigeria's major languages:

Speakers: 45M+ (27M native, 18M+ L2)
Official language: Nigeria (one of 3 major languages alongside Hausa, Yoruba)
Geographic spread: Southeast Nigeria (Anambra, Imo, Abia, Enugu, Ebonyi states), diaspora
Writing system: Latin alphabet (standardized orthography)
Linguistic family: Niger-Congo (Volta-Niger branch)
Cultural significance: Igbo literature, music (highlife), Nollywood (Igbo films)
Digital presence: Growing on social media, YouTube, Nigerian tech ecosystem

Target Applications

This dataset is designed for:

Igbo ASR systems - Speech recognition for 45M+ speakers
Voice assistants - Nigerian tech startups, mobile banking in Southeast Nigeria
TTS for Igbo - Text-to-speech with authentic Igbo pronunciation
Language learning apps - Pronunciation training for Igbo learners
Content moderation - Social media platforms operating in Nigeria
Transcription services - Igbo films, radio, podcasts, Nollywood content
Cultural preservation - Digitizing Igbo oral traditions, proverbs (ilu)

Dataset Structure

igbo-speech/
└── data/
    ├── audio/              # 36 WAV files
    └── metadata.csv        # Speaker metadata & transcripts

Data Splits

Igbo (Nigeria)

Files: 36 recordings
Dialect: Primarily Owerri Igbo (Central Igbo, widely understood)
Context: Natural spontaneous speech
Use case: General-purpose Igbo ASR, Southeast Nigerian voice AI

Languages Sampled in This Dataset ✅

36 audio samples available for immediate download:

Igbo: 36 files (~22 minutes)

Full OTS Inventory Available 📊

This sample represents <0.21% of Silencio's complete Igbo speech inventory.

Igbo by Country:

Nigeria: 939 hours, 81,391 recordings
Angola: 4 hours, 366 recordings
United States: 3 hours, 286 recordings
United Kingdom: 2 hours, 145 recordings
American Samoa: 1 hour, 166 recordings
South Africa: 1 hour, 27 recordings
Ghana: 0.3 hours, 16 recordings
Algeria: 0.3 hours, 46 recordings
+ 10 more countries (diaspora communities)

Total: 952+ hours across 83,000+ recordings

Contact us for access: sofia@silencioai.com

Key Features

✅ Native speakers - Authentic Southeast Nigerian Igbo (Owerri dialect)
✅ Natural speech - Real conversational Igbo, not scripted
✅ Central dialect - Owerri variant (widely understood across Igboland)
✅ Diverse topics - Daily life, business, opinions, culture
✅ High audio quality - 48 kHz WAV format
✅ Rich metadata - Gender, dialect, emotions, transcriptions in Latin script
✅ Ethical data collection - Consent-based, privacy-preserving

Use Cases

1. Igbo Speech Recognition

Build ASR systems for the 45M+ Igbo-speaking market in Southeast Nigeria and the diaspora.

2. Voice Banking & Fintech

Power voice-enabled mobile banking in Southeast Nigeria (Owerri, Aba, Enugu, Onitsha).

3. Igbo TTS

Train text-to-speech models with authentic Igbo pronunciation and tonal patterns.

4. Content Moderation

Build speech detection for Nigerian social media platforms and Igbo content on YouTube/TikTok.

5. Nollywood & Media

Improve automatic transcription for Igbo films, radio shows, and podcasts.

6. Cultural Preservation

Digitize Igbo oral traditions, proverbs (ilu), folktales (akụkọ ifo), and highlife music.

Loading the Dataset

from datasets import load_dataset

# Load full Igbo dataset
dataset = load_dataset("SilencioNetwork/igbo-speech")

# Access samples
for sample in dataset['train']:
    audio = sample['audio']
    transcript = sample['transcript']
    dialect = sample['dialect']
    print(f"Transcript: {transcript}")
    print(f"Dialect: {dialect}")

Sample Metadata

Each recording includes:

file_name: Audio file path
id: Unique recording ID
gender: Speaker gender
location: Speaker location
mother_tongue: Native language (Igbo)
dialect: Regional variant (Nigeria - Owerri)
duration: Recording length (seconds)
emotions: Emotion labels (focused, relaxed, happy, etc.)
language: Igbo
type_of_script: free_speech (spontaneous, unscripted)
transcript: Whisper-generated transcription (Latin script)
script: Original prompt (question asked in Igbo)

Igbo Speech Characteristics

This dataset captures authentic Igbo speech features:

Tonal language: High, low, downstep tones - critical for word meaning
Vowel harmony: ATR (advanced tongue root) harmony system
Syllable structure: Primarily CV (consonant-vowel)
Nasal vowels: Distinctive nasalization (ụ, ọ, etc.)
Complex morphology: Rich verb affixation
Natural prosody: Authentic rhythm, stress, intonation
Real-world audio: Mobile recordings, natural environments

Market Context

Southeast Nigerian Economy

45M+ Igbo speakers - One of Nigeria's 3 major language groups
Southeast Nigeria: 25M+ population, major commercial zone
Aba/Onitsha: Commercial hubs, major markets
Diaspora: Large Igbo communities in US, UK (high-value market)
Entrepreneurial culture: Igbo traders/business owners across West Africa
Nollywood: Igbo-language films popular across Nigeria
Highlife music: Igbo cultural tradition influencing African pop music

Why Igbo Matters

Underrepresented in AI: <0.01% of speech datasets despite 45M+ speakers
Commercial language: Southeast Nigeria's economy (manufacturing, trade)
Cultural influence: Igbo literature (Chinua Achebe, Chimamanda Adichie), music, film
Diaspora market: Wealthy communities in US/UK seeking language tech
Growing digital economy: E-commerce, fintech emerging in Aba/Onitsha/Nnewi

Igbo Dialects

Owerri Igbo (represented in this dataset) is part of Central Igbo:

Widely understood across Igboland
Used in some media and education
Mutually intelligible with other Central dialects

Standard Igbo (based on Owerri/Onitsha) is used in:

Education
Radio/TV broadcasts
Religious services
Written literature

Other major dialect groups: Onitsha, Nsukka, Owerri, Ngwa (all mutually intelligible)

Tonal Language Considerations

Igbo is a tonal language - pitch changes word meaning:

àkwá (crying)
ákwà (cloth)
ákwá (egg)
ákwà (bridge)

ASR/TTS systems need to capture these tone distinctions for accurate Igbo processing.

Ethical Considerations

All data was collected with explicit informed consent from native Igbo speakers. Recordings contain general conversational topics only - no sensitive personal information.

Comparison to Other Datasets

Dataset	Language	Hours	Speakers	Natural?
LibriSpeech	English	1,000	2,484	❌ Read speech
Common Voice	Igbo	~5	Few	⚠️ Read sentences
Silencio Igbo	Igbo	952+	3,900+	✅ Spontaneous

This is the largest natural Igbo speech dataset available.

Citation

If you use this dataset in your research or commercial product, please cite:

@dataset{silencio_igbo_speech_2026,
  title={Igbo Speech Dataset},
  author={Silencio Network},
  year={2026},
  publisher={HuggingFace},
  url={https://huggingface.co/datasets/SilencioNetwork/igbo-speech}
}

Related Datasets

African Languages Speech - 6 African languages (Swahili, Hausa, Yoruba, Igbo, Amharic, Nigerian English)
Yoruba Speech - 50 Yoruba samples (fellow Nigerian language)
Hausa Speech - 49 Hausa samples (fellow Nigerian language)
Complete Voice AI Speech Dataset - 39 language/accent variants

License

CC BY-NC 4.0 (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International)

✅ Free for research and non-commercial use
❌ Commercial use requires licensing (contact us)

About Silencio

Silencio is a voice AI data sourcing company with 2M+ contributors across 180+ countries. We provide scaled sourcing of real-world audio and speech data for AI labs, robotics companies, and enterprises building voice AI products.

🌐 silencioai.com
📧 sofia@silencioai.com

Tags: igbo, asụsụ igbo, nigerian languages, west africa, nigeria, southeast nigeria, owerri, tonal language, african languages, low-resource languages, speech recognition, asr, tts, voice ai, natural speech, spontaneous speech, nigerian speech, nollywood

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