diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index b9021506..660f5c75 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@ and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0
 
 ### Fixed
 * Fixed an over-decref of the borrowed module dictionary reference on the module initialization error path [gh-264](https://github.com/IntelPython/mkl_umath/pull/264)
+* Fixed a leak of the module object when the NumPy C-API import fails during module initialization [gh-263](https://github.com/IntelPython/mkl_umath/pull/263)
 
 ## [0.5.0] - 2026-08-06
 
diff --git a/mkl_umath/src/ufuncsmodule.c b/mkl_umath/src/ufuncsmodule.c
index 5863081d..cd6d447a 100644
--- a/mkl_umath/src/ufuncsmodule.c
+++ b/mkl_umath/src/ufuncsmodule.c
@@ -40,6 +40,11 @@ PyMODINIT_FUNC PyInit__ufuncs(void)
     PyObject *m;
     PyObject *d;
 
+    /* NumPy C-API init macros: they `return NULL;` on failure, so call them
+     * before PyModule_Create() to avoid leaking the module on early return. */
+    import_array();
+    import_umath();
+
     m = PyModule_Create(&_ufuncs_module);
     if (m == NULL)
         return NULL;
@@ -50,9 +55,6 @@ PyMODINIT_FUNC PyInit__ufuncs(void)
         return NULL;
     }
 
-    import_array();
-    import_umath();
-
     if (InitOperators(d) < 0) {
         /* d is a borrowed reference from PyModule_GetDict; do not decref it. */
         Py_XDECREF(m);