diff --git a/lib/ansible/module_utils/ec2.py b/lib/ansible/module_utils/ec2.py
index fdb326a7f1..7a30955db8 100644
--- a/lib/ansible/module_utils/ec2.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/module_utils/ec2.py
@@ -147,7 +147,9 @@ def get_aws_connection_info(module, boto3=False):
             elif boto3 and HAS_BOTO3:
                 # here we don't need to make an additional call, will default to 'us-east-1' if the below evaluates to None.
                 region = botocore.session.get_session().get_config_variable('region')
-
+            elif boto3 and not HAS_BOTO3:
+                module.fail_json("Boto3 is required for this module. Please install boto3 and try again")
+                
     if not security_token:
         if 'AWS_SECURITY_TOKEN' in os.environ:
             security_token = os.environ['AWS_SECURITY_TOKEN']