(Bloomberg) -- Nigeria’s government agreed to raise the pay of its public servants including police, military and intelligence personnel by as much as 35% as the West African nation battles surging inflation and rampant insecurity.

The wage increases will be backdated to Jan. 1, according to a statement issued by the presidency. Pensioners will get a 28% bump effective from the same date, it said.

Increasing the pay of Nigeria’s security forces will help President Bola Tinubu fulfill an election-campaign pledge to address the nation’s fragile security situation. The authorities have been battling an Islamist insurgency in the northeast for more than a decade, and have faced an increase in mass abductions and kidnappings for ransom.

Read more: Nigeria’s Economy, Once Africa’s Biggest, Slips to Fourth Place

Inflation in Nigeria accelerated to 33.2% in March, the fastest pace in almost three decades. Price-growth is being fueled by aggressive economic reforms implemented by Tinubu since he took office almost a year ago, including the removal of fuel subsidies, an overhaul of the nation’s foreign-exchange policy and an increase in power tariffs.

State officials have been in talks with labor unions who’ve demanded a 20-fold increase in the minimum wage to 615,000 naira ($440) a month, from 30,000 naira, to address a cost-of-living crisis. While those negotiations have stalled, Tinubu said in a speech on Wednesday that the government is open to the “suggestion of not just a minimum wage but a living wage.”

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