diff --git a/cmake/GlobalConfig.cmake b/cmake/GlobalConfig.cmake
index c94d500..9c59abf 100644
--- a/cmake/GlobalConfig.cmake
+++ b/cmake/GlobalConfig.cmake
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@
 option(BUILD_FOR_COVERAGE "Use no optimization and output .gcno and .gcda files" OFF)
 option(ARMCOMPUTENEON "Build with ARM Compute NEON support" OFF)
 option(ARMCOMPUTECL "Build with ARM Compute OpenCL support" OFF)
-option(ARMNNREF "Build with ArmNN reference support" OFF)
+option(ARMNNREF "Build with ArmNN reference support" ON)
 option(PROFILING_BACKEND_STREAMLINE "Forward the armNN profiling events to DS-5/Streamline as annotations" OFF)
 # options used for heap profiling and leak checking
 option(HEAP_PROFILING "Build with heap profiling enabled" OFF)