Abuja — IN a case of different tunes for different folks, global watchdog, International Financial Action Task Force (FATF) on Money Laundering has lauded Federal Government's anti-graft initiatives, barely a week after Transparency International (TI) declared Nigeria the third most corrupt nation.

The FATF, in a letter to President Olusegun Obasanjo, said unlike TI, it was pleased with the government for serious efforts being made to curb money laundering and other financial crimes.

FATF president Mr Jean-Louis Fort noted that the body at its recent plenary session in Paris, France, discussed Nigeria where it expressed satisfaction at the country's submission of an implementation plan last September.

TI had only last week rated Nigeria the world's third most corrupt country Bangladesh and Haiti were rated joint first most corrupt countries.

Mr. Fort said his group welcomed the plan submitted by Nigeria, stressing that it was a key step towards the country's removal from the list of countries still considered as not cooperating fully with global efforts to curb money laundering.

Said he: "The plenary was pleased to learn from the Africa/Middle East Review Group that Nigeria had submitted an implementation plan in September. As you know, the FATF asks a country to submit an implementation plan only after the FATF believes the country has enacted the main legal and regulatory reforms."

He said the group believed that the plan would assist in evaluating the actual implementation of the full range of financial reforms initiated by the administration.

To ensure speedy delisting of Nigeria as among non-cooperative countries, President Obasanjo had sometime ago set up an Inter-agency Committee, chaired by his Principal Secretary, Mr. Steve Oronsaye.

Noticeable steps taken so far by government include the enactment of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act 2004 and Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (Establishment) Act.