Affordable Housing: Activist Tasks Govt On UN Standards

Worried by the high
percentage of workers salaries spent on accommodation particularly those in the civil service, a human rights activist, Mr. Frank Ikenya, has called on both federal and state governments to follow the United Nations  Standards for affordable  housing and make such  available for the people.
Ikenya, who is a lawyer by training in a chat with The Tide in Port Harcourt,  said that the United Nations Standard  is that nobody should pay more than 30 per cent of his income  on rent.
He said that investigations had revealed that most of the civil servants spend 60 per cent of their salaries to service their rent annually.
“By the time a civil servant pays 60 per cent of his income on house  it definitely affects his general well being.
“The United Nations (UN) Standard  is that nobody should pay more than 30 per cent of his income on rent.
“By the time you pay more than 30 per cent, it means that the house is not affordable. UN believes that if you pay 30 per cent on rent, then you have the other 70 per cent  to meet your needs,  but in Nigeria the reverse is the case,” he said.
According to him, the reason for the position of the United Nations’  30 per cent threshold of what is affordable is based on the fact that one can not do other things or take care of other basic needs after spending 60 per cent on accommodation alone.
He therefore urged government to stimulate people’s interest in land title  registration and conversion of customary titles to  statutory right of occupancy  at minimal cost.

Corlins Walter