The expansion of the speech technology sector has given rise to a novel economic model in language research, with the objective of developing speech datasets. This model is expanding to under-served African languages through collaborative efforts between industries, organisations, and the active participation of communities. This collaboration is yielding new datasets for machine learning, while also disclosing vulnerabilities and sociolinguistic discrepancies between industrialised and non-industrialised societies. A case study of a speech data collection camp that took place in September 2024 in Cameroon, involving representatives of 31 languages throughout the continent, illustrates both the prospects of the new economic model for research on under-served languages and the challenges of fair, effective, and responsible participation.