The Korean Federation of Community Credit Cooperatives said Friday that one of its subsidiaries had been granted a license to establish its business permanently in Uganda.

The financial cooperative received the permission from the Uganda government after entering the market in October 2018. The microfinancing-centered business, which started out with only two employees at the time, now has more than 150 employees working in 15 subsidiaries, providing services to over 5,000 members in the African nation.

The KFCC, due to its nature as a cooperative, operates only subsidiaries, whereas commercial institutions hold a mix of subsidiaries, branches and offices in their business network.

The KFCC’s presence in Uganda has been “playing an active part in poverty reduction and community development” with the Ugandan government recognizing its business model as “sustainable,” the firm said.

According to the KFCC, the subsidiary that has been granted the license has a healthy operational self-sufficiency -- a yardstick for microfinancing institutions to measure its ability in generating incomes -- of 100 percent. Some of the other subsidiaries there hold an OSS ratio of 900 percent, the firm added.

Uganda’s gross domestic product per capita stood at $794 in 2019, according to the World Bank, making it one of the world’s poorest economies.

The KFCC said that its growth in Uganda was achieved through the support of Korea’s Ministry of the Interior and Safety, the Korea International Cooperation Agency also known as KOICA and the Embassy of the Republic of Korea in Uganda.

The KFCC posted an annual net profit of 780.1 billion won ($6.9 million) last year, slightly gaining on-year, with its total assets standing at 209 trillion won in the same period.

“We are helping people in rural areas realize their dreams with the seeds of hope sown by (the KFCC) in Uganda,” Park Cha-hoon, chairman of the KFCC said in a statement.

By Jung Min-kyung (mkjung@heraldcorp.com)