When the enforcement of the 1867 Anglo-Dutch Convention for an Interchange of Territory on the Gold Coast of Africa resulted in a siege of Elmina by the Fante Confederacy, Kobina Gyan co-authored the August 1868 petition to king William III of the Netherlands, asking him for help and assistance.

[3] After his father was destooled in January 1869 for not opposing Dutch governor George Pieter Willem Boers's way of dealing with the siege of Elmina strongly enough, Kobina Gyan was enstooled on 15 July 1869 to succeed him.

[4] During his rule, Kobina Gyan initially relied on the support and advice of the wealthy and educated Elmina trader George Emil Eminsang.

With the assistance of Elmina District Commissioner Hendrik Vroom, who collected him from Sierra Leone, Kobina Gyan again set foot on Elminan soil on 17 May 1894 and was again proclaimed king.

[12][13] The South African author Manu Herbstein published a fictionalised account of the transfer of Elmina to the British in 2014, which centres on a (fictional) fifteen year-old nephew of Kobina Gyan as The Boy who Spat in Sargrenti's Eye.