He is a Fellow of Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (FCCA) and a member of the Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Uganda (ICPAU). He also holds a Bachelor of Commerce (Accounting) from Makerere University and an Msc (Accounting) degree from Glamorgan University in the UK. James is an alumnus of the United States International Visitor Program. In 2009, he attended an International Training Course orgranised by the National Audit Office of the UK.

James joined the Office as an Auditor in 1996. He was promoted to Senior Auditor in 2001, a post he held till 2005 when he was promoted to the post of Principal Auditor and deployed to undertake audits of donor-funded projects. In 2009, he was then promoted to the post of Senior Principal Auditor and deployed in the Central Government One as an Acting Assistant Director of Audit. He was later promoted to Director of Audit, deployed to the Directorate of Forensic investigations and IT Audits. He is currently the Assistant Auditor General-Audit.