The Voice got off the ground with a £62,000 loan from Barclays Bank. At a time when Afro-Caribbean businesses found it particularly hard to get backing from banks, The Voice was helped by Barclays banks desire to show support for Afro-Caribbean causes. This was partly to counteract the adverse publicity attracted by Barclays investments in the racist apartheid regime in South Africa. Another source of funding was the existence of the Government Loan Guarantee Scheme and support from the Ken Livingstone led GLC.
