South African IT entrepreneur Stafford Masie believes Africa will soon lead a wave of innovation that will change the world.

Masie is the developer of mobile point of sale platform "Payment Pebble". He told ITWeb Africa many people ask him why he has not chosen a different continent to launch his innovations, including the South African-manufactured Payment Pebble, which, since its launch, has been launched in Australia, South East Asia and most recently in the United States.

"I think Africa presents opportunities because of the hurdles that it presents. Africa will challenge you, it will put obstacles in front of you. There is no mature venture capital market, your base is generally an illiterate base and it is cost sensitive so the terrain is quite challenging. Africa therefore does not require innovation, it requires invention and invention requires you to build things that don't exist in the first place which can be very difficult."

Masie says Africa will not birth technology companies like Google, Twitter and Facebook and entrepreneurs should be shifting their focus.

"I think what you will find is the next Google of water purification, the next twitter of Agriculture, the next Facebook of healthcare, the next Twitter of financial services because what we are building here are things that matter. In Africa it is not about clicking the light button and having hundreds of people do that and that is how you derive value, here you have to make meaningful impact on people's lives and in order to create sustainability for your organisation. This is not where you will build the next social media platform but where you create the next innovation targeting healthcare services."

Ahead of his interview with ITWeb Africa, Masie told his audience during a presentation on behalf of Business Analytics software company SAS that innovators of new business frameworks and strategies should put more emphasis on people rather than technology.

Co-creativity

Building great products and services will not be enough in the near future, according to Masie who recommends that businesses begin to make use of "co-creativity" where customers become part of an enterprises effort to create better services.

"Banks want us to want to give us prettier bank branches and prettier ways of payment and they think it is really cool but as consumers we look at that and think, 'I don't want to do that, I want the coffee and I want the muffin, I don't care how the slip comes out. I don't care how great the payment is going to be in a cab, all I want is to get from point A to point B like Uber where I get in and out and I've paid.' When technology disappears it has finally made its impact and that is when you engage with it on a meaningful basis."

Masie says the banking sector is a powerful example of uniquely African innovation that is revolutionising how technology caters for people and not for the sake of technology.

"Our banks in South Africa are probably the most modern and advanced in the world. Which bank outside of South Africa gives you a phone or tablet, a sim and even a voice or data package etc? We are doing that. Look also at what we are doing with our mobile apps. I sat down with the CEO of a blue chip US bank not too long ago and I showed him my mobile app of my bank here in South Africa and I showed him how I can do the wallets and the peer to peer, geo fencing payments and all of that and he was blown away. We are ahead, even though we keep saying that we should catch up."