Rural Electrication Agency

The Rural Electrification Fund (REF) is a statutory body governed by the Rural Electrification Fund Act (Chapter 13:20). Its background is that Post-independence Zimbabwean Government gave high priority to rural infrastructure development programmes, which included the rural electrification programme. The policy framework was a deliberate intention to correct the imbalances between urban and rural electrification with the ultimate goal of socially and financially empowering the rural communities and enhancing their capabilities in their contribution towards economic development of the country.

The Rural Electrification Programme (REP) commenced in earnest in 1983 when the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA) earmarked forty-eight (48) growth points for electrification. The pace of project implementation was slow and characterized by under funding and inequitable project distribution. In essence, the resultant poor return on infrastructure investment emanating from the high electrification costs and low load regimes associated with the rural communities, discouraged ZESA management, by then from fully fledged implementation of the policy framework. However, in February 1989 the idea of a countrywide rural electrification programme was mooted. This idea culminated in the 1995 African Development Bank funded Rural Electrification Master Plan Study that recommended: