After nearly 90 years in Zimbabwe’s financial services and property sectors, Fidelity Life Assurance is making an ambitious foray into the energy sector with what it says will be the country’s first and largest residential piped gas network.
Through its Subsidiary, Southview Energy Company, a joint venture with Amara Energy, has begun laying gas distribution infrastructure at its Southview Park development, south of Harare, in a project expected to supply uninterrupted liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) directly to more than 4 000 households by the end of the year.
If completed as planned, the development will provide clean cooking energy to an estimated 15 000 to 20 000 residents without residents having to transport heavy LPG cylinders for refilling, fundamentally changing how households access cooking gas in Zimbabwe, marking a significant shift in the way households access LPG in Zimbabwe.
Project lead Weddie Makomichi said the development introduces piped gas as a utility service, similar to the way fibre-optic internet transformed household connectivity.
“We provide uninterrupted gas supply to households within Fidelity developments through the deployment of piped gas utility infrastructure. If you want to think of it another way, think of it as fibre-to-the-home, but for gas,” Makomichi told journalists during a media engagement in Harare on Friday.
Unlike the conventional LPG model, where households purchase, transport and periodically refill cylinders, residents connected to the network will receive gas through underground pipelines.
Fidelity Director, Reginald Chihota, said consumption will be monitored digitally, while customers will recharge their accounts using a mobile application.
“Plans are at an advanced stage in terms of making sure the tanks are put underground, gases connected to the houses and people can pay for it o a prepaid basis using an app,” he said.
Makomichi said the project was informed by extensive market research conducted before construction began.
“We did not think of this from our desks. We went on the ground for market validation and one of the recurring messages from residents was, ‘We are tired of carrying cylinders. When will you bring this service?'”
He described the initiative as the first of its kind at such a scale in Zimbabwe.
“This will be one of the largest private residential piped gas developments in Southern Africa. I say this with certainty: it is the first and the largest in Zimbabwe,”he said.
The project comes as Zimbabwe’s LPG market continues to expand rapidly.
Zimbabwe Energy Regulatory Authority (ZERA), reports that the national LPG consumption has grown from about five million kilogrammes in 2010 to around 60 million kilogrammes in recent years, driven by increasing adoption of cleaner cooking fuels and the entry of numerous private sector operators into the market.
Although LPG has become increasingly popular as households move away from firewood and unreliable electricity supplies, Zimbabwe’s distribution model has remained overwhelmingly cylinder-based. Fidelity believes piped gas could become the next phase in the country’s urban energy transition.
While the country has hundreds of licensed LPG wholesalers and retailers supplying gas primarily through cylinders, large-scale piped residential gas networks remain largely absent, making Fidelity’s investment a potentially transformative development for the domestic energy sector.
For Fidelity, which has operated in Zimbabwe for nearly 90 years and is best known for life assurance and large-scale housing developments, the project represents an expansion beyond property development into utility infrastructure — a move that could redefine how future residential suburbs are planned and serviced.
If successful, the Southview Park model could become a blueprint for integrating clean energy infrastructure into new housing developments across Zimbabwe, reducing reliance on cylinder-based LPG distribution while improving convenience, safety and energy access for thousands of households
Beyond piped gas, Fidelity is also planning to invest in renewable energy to support the new suburb.
Chihota said the company was at an advanced stage of developing a 15-megawatt solar power plant that will supply Southview Park and surrounding communities in Harare South.
“Plans are at an advanced stage to put up a 15MW Solar Plant that willservice Southview and also part of Harare South,” said Chihota.
Combined with the proposed solar plant, the piped gas project signals Fidelity’s commitment to clean energy for Southview Park and transform the area from a conventional housing development into an integrated smart suburb with dedicated energy infrastructure
