Underwater wireless optical communication is the best alternative for many applications especially for high bandwidth data communication between underwater objects and vehicles. The implementation of coding scheme along with advanced modulation technique and equalisation methods is identified as a key research scope for enhancing the performance of the system. In this paper, the coded generalised frequency division multiplexing (GFDM) technology is employed to provide high-data rates and less out-of-band emission. The Bose-Chaudhuri-Hocquenghem (BCH) and Reed-Solomon (RS) coding schemes along with equalisation techniques namely normalised least mean square (NLMS)-based decision feedback equalisers (DFE), minimum mean square error (MMSE) and zero forcing (ZF) are utilized to reduce inter symbol interference (ISI). The bit error rate (BER) performance is evaluated in the presence of pointing error (PE) and turbulence using Monte Carlo channel modelling simulations. The results showed that RS coding with NLMS-DFE outperforms other techniques and achieves a BER of roughly 10−5 with a signal-to-noise ratio levels below 20 dB. The simulation results demonstrate that RS code with 15 total symbols per code word and 3 data symbols, i.e., RS (15, 3) and BCH code with 31 total symbols in a code word and 6 data symbols, i.e., BCH (31, 6) provided the best error performance among other coding schemes employed. It is inferred that RS (15, 3) coded 2 × 2 multiple input multiple output systems with NLMS-DFE achieved a BER value of 1.1925 ×  10−5 at 11 dB which is 16 dB less than uncoded system. Thus, the coded GFDM improves overall BER performance and has the potential to provide higher reliability for internet of underwater things (IoUT) applications.