diff --git a/doc/source/whatsnew/v0.25.0.rst b/doc/source/whatsnew/v0.25.0.rst
index f61c8bfbd782e..7d123697d3d20 100644
--- a/doc/source/whatsnew/v0.25.0.rst
+++ b/doc/source/whatsnew/v0.25.0.rst
@@ -96,7 +96,8 @@ Other Enhancements
 - :meth:`DataFrame.query` and :meth:`DataFrame.eval` now supports quoting column names with backticks to refer to names with spaces (:issue:`6508`)
 - :func:`merge_asof` now gives a more clear error message when merge keys are categoricals that are not equal (:issue:`26136`)
 - :meth:`pandas.core.window.Rolling` supports exponential (or Poisson) window type (:issue:`21303`)
-- :class:`DatetimeIndex` and :class:`TimedeltaIndex` now have a `mean` method (:issue:`24757`)
+- Error message for missing required imports now includes the original import error's text (:issue:`23868`)
+- :class:`DatetimeIndex` and :class:`TimedeltaIndex` now have a ``mean`` method (:issue:`24757`)
 - :meth:`DataFrame.describe` now formats integer percentiles without decimal point (:issue:`26660`)
 
 .. _whatsnew_0250.api_breaking:
diff --git a/pandas/__init__.py b/pandas/__init__.py
index 4c494b4a62e39..a2fa14be83998 100644
--- a/pandas/__init__.py
+++ b/pandas/__init__.py
@@ -10,11 +10,10 @@
     try:
         __import__(dependency)
     except ImportError as e:
-        missing_dependencies.append(dependency)
+        missing_dependencies.append("{0}: {1}".format(dependency, str(e)))
 
 if missing_dependencies:
-    raise ImportError(
-        "Missing required dependencies {0}".format(missing_dependencies))
+    raise ImportError("Unable to import required dependencies:\n" + "\n".join(missing_dependencies))
 del hard_dependencies, dependency, missing_dependencies
 
 # numpy compat
diff --git a/pandas/tests/test_downstream.py b/pandas/tests/test_downstream.py
index c41c3abcab4af..14d3ee5ac4fe2 100644
--- a/pandas/tests/test_downstream.py
+++ b/pandas/tests/test_downstream.py
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 """
 Testing that we work in the downstream packages
 """
+import builtins
 import importlib
 import subprocess
 import sys
@@ -131,3 +132,32 @@ def test_pyarrow(df):
     table = pyarrow.Table.from_pandas(df)
     result = table.to_pandas()
     tm.assert_frame_equal(result, df)
+
+
+def test_missing_required_dependency(monkeypatch):
+    # GH 23868
+    original_import = __import__
+
+    def mock_import_fail(name, *args, **kwargs):
+        if name == "numpy":
+            raise ImportError("cannot import name numpy")
+        elif name == "pytz":
+            raise ImportError("cannot import name some_dependency")
+        elif name == "dateutil":
+            raise ImportError("cannot import name some_other_dependency")
+        else:
+            return original_import(name, *args, **kwargs)
+
+    expected_msg = (
+        "Unable to import required dependencies:"
+        "\nnumpy: cannot import name numpy"
+        "\npytz: cannot import name some_dependency"
+        "\ndateutil: cannot import name some_other_dependency"
+    )
+
+    import pandas as pd
+
+    with monkeypatch.context() as m:
+        m.setattr(builtins, "__import__", mock_import_fail)
+        with pytest.raises(ImportError, match=expected_msg):
+            importlib.reload(pd)