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The Rural Electrification Fund (REF) is a statutory body which was established in 2002 through an Act of Parliament, with the mandate to provide energy infrastructure in the rural areas of Zimbabwe for economic empowerment and development. Since its formation, REF has managed to provide energy infrastructure to almost 8 540 rural institutions in all the Province of Zimbabwe using the conventional grid electricity and solar energy.Of these institutions, 8 115 were electrified using grid electricity while the remaining 425 were electrified using solar technology.

The institutions include Primary and Secondary Schools, Rural Health Centres, Business Centres, Government Extension Offices, Chiefs’ Homesteads, A1 and A2 Farms, Villages and other Community Centres.

As part of its Zim-Asset target, the Fund is set to electrify 607 institutions countrywide in 2016 alone. To speed up the provision of energy infrastructure in rural areas of Zimbabwe, REF adopted Single Wire Earth Return (SWER), a cost effective grid based technology which is suitable for remote and sparsely populated areas with low energy demand.

In addition, the Fund is also rolling out biogas energy to meet heating and cooking energy requirements for rural communities and institutions. To date the Fund has constructed 37 institutional biogas digesters at various institutions countrywide.