call money
Call Money is money banks lend each other for as little as a day, that can be called back almost without notice, unlike your salary that no one can just recall.
In plain English
Here is the strange part. Some of the biggest sums moving between Nigerian banks every single day are loans with no fixed date of return. The lender can simply ask for the money back tomorrow morning, and the borrower must find it. That sounds like a terrible way to run a loan, yet it is exactly how banks keep the whole system breathing.
Banks do not keep every naira of your deposit sitting idle in a vault. They lend most of it out, invest some, and keep a slice ready for withdrawals. Some days a bank finds itself short of cash because too many customers withdrew at once, or a big cheque cleared out. Other days a bank has more cash than it needs. Call Money is the market where the bank that is short borrows, overnight or for a few days, from the bank that has extra, and the lender can call it back on short notice.
Think of two Nigerian banks. Access Bank might have surplus cash sitting after a busy day of deposits, while another bank is scrambling to settle interbank obligations before the Central Bank of Nigeria's clearing deadline. The short bank borrows call money for a day or two, pays a bit of interest, and returns it once its own inflows arrive. Nobody outside the banking halls notices, but it happens constantly.
In the United Kingdom, this same overnight borrowing between banks is closely watched because it feeds into rates like SONIA, which affects mortgages and business loans across the country. A calm corner of banking ends up shaping what ordinary people pay to borrow.
For someone sending money home from London to Lagos, none of this touches you directly, but it is part of why your bank can always find cash to pay you the moment your transfer lands. The plumbing works because banks constantly lend each other small, fast, recallable sums behind the scenes.
A Nigerian bank is short by ₦500,000,000 at close of business. It borrows call money overnight from another bank at a rate agreed for that single night, repays the principal plus interest the next morning once customer deposits settle in, and both banks move on as if nothing happened.
Questions people ask
Is Call Money the same as a normal bank loan?
No. Normal loans have fixed terms, sometimes years. Call Money is short, usually overnight or a few days, and the lender can ask for it back on very short notice, which is why it is called call money.
Does Call Money affect ordinary customers directly?
Not directly. You will not see it on your statement, but it helps banks manage their daily cash needs so that withdrawals, transfers and cheques clear smoothly for everyone.
Why would a bank lend money it might need back tomorrow?
Because it earns interest on cash that would otherwise sit idle for even one day, and because tomorrow it might be the bank needing to borrow instead.
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