President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has said that despite the attendant effects of Covid-19 on economies worldwide, businesses in the country will still continue to grow.

This, he explained, is because of his administration's effective management of the economy during their first term in government.

"In spite of the unexpected and dramatic entry into our lives by Covid-19, with the subsequent worldwide devastation, we can demonstrate that we have set the economy on a strong foundation, and businesses will flourish.

“The virus has slowed us down, but it has not diverted us from the path of growth we have put the country on".

This follows several criticisms from former President John Mahama that "Ghana’s economy is on ventilators barely a month after impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic".

However, the President is response blamed the former president for bringing Ghana's "entire financial system to a near collapse" adding that Ghana's economy under Mahama's administration was in "tatters not because of the Covid-19 pandemic, but because of mismanagement".

He doubted that former president Mahama would "recognize a well-managed economy even if it slapped him in the face".

Praising his administration, he touted the fact that the NPP government have been able to provide hot meals to Junior High School students in the midst of a pandemic, as well as paying the water bills and subsidizing the electricity bills of Ghanaians nationwide.

He expressed concern at the competence of the NDC flagbearer should he have been at the helm of affairs during the pandemic.

"Indeed we thank the Almighty that the pandemic did not strike under his [John Mahama] presidency when there was no money in the national kitty to pay teachers and nurses allowance".

Nana Addo however admitted that they pandemic had had an impact on the ecomony.

"We are very much aware of the realities of the times. We know the havoc Covid-19 has wreaked on our economies and livelihoods".

He made these comments during his address at the manifesto launch of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in Cape Coast, Saturday.

Meanwhile, a number of economists and financial experts have opined that the economy has been badly hit by Covid-19.

At the start of the pandemic, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) approved the disbursement of $1 billion to be drawn under the Rapid Credit Facility (RCF) intended to aid the country deal with Coronavirus.