Software has become one of the most important drivers of modern society, but the context in which software is developed is fraught with many challenges related to quality and failure to meet intended needs and purposes. Artificial Intelligence offers high potential to reshape development practices and processes and overcome some of these challenges. However, research and applications in software engineering have been slow, primarily focused on the Global North, leaving a critical gap in the Global South, particularly Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Moreover, while the region has a growing technology ecosystem, a lack of research on the adoption of Artificial Intelligence for software engineering in the unique SSA context could hinder the ability to understand the best ways Small Software Companies can harness the anticipated transformative potential. We conducted a multivocal literature survey to investigate the existing research gap in the role of Artificial Intelligence in software engineering within the context of SSA. Our findings reveal that cost barriers are the central challenge, but part of a complex ecosystem of interconnected issues. The most striking finding is that even when companies want to adopt AI, the financial constraints are compounded by infrastructure limitations with less than 5% of African businesses having necessary computational resources. This survey highlights the challenges related to adoption of AI in software companies in Africa, providing insights for researchers and practitioners to harness the opportunities offered by AI to improve software practice in SSA.