diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 4ce254ca6..8d67fe5dc 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -143,6 +143,7 @@ def run(self):
       long_description=long_description,
       packages=['pygit2'],
       package_data={'pygit2': ['decl.h']},
+      setup_requires=['cffi'],
       install_requires=['cffi', 'six', 'pycparser<2.18'],
       zip_safe=False,
       cmdclass=cmdclass,