Before his government and private sector work, Suruma worked as a professor of economics and management at Makerere University and at Florida A&M University. In 1987, he joined the Bank of Uganda, the country's central bank, as the director of research, serving in that capacity until 1990. From 1990 until 1993, he served as the deputy governor of the Bank of Uganda. In 1993, he left that position and joined the Uganda Commercial Bank as the chairman and managing director, serving in that capacity until 1996.