Lenovo pilots new finance scheme in AP, Telangana

The company would offer 100% financing with zero down payment and zero interest on purchase of high-performance Lenovo laptops

Chinese electronics giant, Lenovo, is piloting its new finance scheme aimed at making computers more accessible to the youth in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

“We chose Andhra Pradesh and Telangana as the first region as they offer immense IT talent. We will be rolling out this initiative pan-India within this year,” Bhaskar Choudhari, director (marketing), Lenovo India, told mediapersons here on Thursday.

Through the new initiative, Lenovo would offer 100 per cent financing with zero down payment and zero-interest on the purchase of high-performance Lenovo laptops and AIOs (all-in-one) desktop computers starting at Rs 22,390. The payment can be broken up across multiple EMIs with no interest fee.

According to the company, India’s current computer penetration is 10 per cent, which is the lowest among developing countries like Vietnam (16 per cent), South Africa (18 per cent), Turkey (49 per cent) and Malaysia (64 per cent).

Lenovo, which has tied up with a consortium of 11 banks, including HDFC, ICICI, Citibank, Kotak Mahindra and Axis, for the finance schemes, is also looking at tie-ups with leading telco majors to provide free Internet dongles with every computer purchase, he said. "Discussions are on with three dominant Internet players and a deal should be confirmed in a week or two from now," Choudhari added.