From 1971 to 1975 he served as the Federal Commissioner (a position now called minister) of finance. During his tenure as the commissioner of finance for Nigeria, Shagari was also a governor for the World Bank and a member of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) committee of twenty. Shagari as the Federal Minister of Finance also launched the present Nigerian currency Naira. In 1976, Shagari initiated the Nigeria Trust Fund in African Development Bank with the sum of One Hundred Million Dollars in order to assist poor African Countries to finance some of their developmental projects.