Hello Ronvethe,
I've seen similar inlays in wooden handle parts from knives which are attributed to North African people like the Tuareg, see for example here:
https://african-weapons.com/gallery?...acksmith-37-cm
To buy a knife in the biggest city of the Niger don't mean that it's a tourist knife, on the other hand it looks very recent/unused and it was sold to a "tourist" or visitor.
I can't answer if it was purely made to get sold to you or it could get used in a much more rual area also I just don't know, you should know more, where you have acquired it, from whom, which story you were told....
Regards,
Detlef