The creation of Vertex Classe Masolo stems from a simple but crucial observation: in the Democratic Republic of Congo, paying school fees remains a complex, time-consuming and non-transparent process. In the majority of schools and universities, parents and students must physically travel to pay their fees — a practice often accompanied by endless queues, lost receipts, data entry errors, or even financial embezzlement. This administrative burden limits the modernization of the Congolese education system and hinders the digitization of its financial infrastructure, which is nevertheless essential for transparency and good governance.

It is in this context that Dr. Barclay Kadiebwe, Congolese entrepreneur and business management expert, founded Vertex Classe Masolo, with the ambition of modernizing school fee payments through digital technology and local financial technologies. He partnered with Etienne Ntumba Kabongo, bioinformatician, data scientist and cloud engineer, recognized for his expertise in artificial intelligence and large-scale application development, to design a complete, reliable platform adapted to the Congolese context. Together, they combined their skills to create an innovative solution, combining entrepreneurial vision, technological excellence and sustainable social impact.

The idea of Vertex Classe Masolo was born from the need to offer a safe, fast and transparent alternative to traditional school payments. Thanks to the rise of mobile money in Central Africa — notably Airtel Money, Orange Money and M-Pesa — it became possible to build a digital educational financial ecosystem, accessible to all social classes, including in rural areas. Vertex Classe Masolo now allows every parent or student to pay their registration, tuition, exam or library fees directly from their phone, without travel, and with instant validation.

The challenges of Vertex Classe Masolo are technological, economic and social. On the technological level, the platform aims to digitize educational payments and connect the Congolese education system to the global digital economy. On the economic level, it promotes financial inclusion of unbanked families while reducing management costs for schools. Finally, on the social level, it helps strengthen trust between parents, institutions and educational authorities, by making each transaction traceable and verifiable.