 The Minister of Transportation Rootsimi Amici says he's ready to listen, learn and implement what the private sector brings to the table. To make it viable. The minister stated this during a webinar organised by International Facility Services in celebration of the World Facility Management Day. Plus, the Africa's correspondent Destiny Momo monitored the event and now reports. The webinar which centred on preservation of public infrastructure with specific attention to rail and port. Minister of Transportation Rootsimi Amici says, currently there is no budget allocation to fund maintenance of these national assets, arguing that absence of this increases the cost of doing business. You can't talk about maintenance if you don't talk about organisation. This is why there is no maintenance because there are no consequences. And maintenance, the absence of maintenance increases the cost of doing business. Most of the speakers highlight poor maintenance culture as the bane of dilapidated infrastructure all across the country, saying it requires commitment from both government and private sector to speak out against some saboteurs stealing rail bars or any public infrastructure. Others say it is not right for government to do everything as private sector maintenance is required. The true position is very simple. Remember, in Nigeria, I remember when we were kids, the public works department is an integral part of the ministries of works in Nigeria. It's still there to the best of my knowledge. And what happens then, if there is a problem, they fix the road. And that must have come from a maintenance budget. And yet I don't do one little bit of maintenance. I have no maintenance engineers. I don't spend any money on maintenance. Instead, I have a very smart contract with the private sector to design and build and operate and ultimately transfer fully maintained rail assets. This is obviously all about industrialisation. If we want to maintain our assets, if we want to build them even adequately, we need to industrialise. And again, that ties into a need for private sector participation to increase tenfold from where we are now. Rotimiameichi says opportunity was given to the private sector to partner with building hotels and malls and terminals, but nobody showed up. In response, the minister says he is ready to listen, learn and implement the productivity of the private sector. Plus, why is there no maintenance budget? There are no budget for maintenance. I've never seen the budget of Nigeria. Since I became a minister, I've not seen the budget for maintenance. Because even though the budget for maintenance will provide the money for maintenance, I can argue in the midst of transport that I have an omnibus budget on the real meat. That says it's the real meat, and that is the real meat budget. Stakeholders here all agree that it is important to build a national consciousness in maintaining assets only when this approach is adopted. The discursants and other participants may have to retable this discourse again. Destiny Momo for Plus TV Africa