diff --git a/python/mxnet/onnx/mx2onnx/_export_onnx.py b/python/mxnet/onnx/mx2onnx/_export_onnx.py
index 375e753bec35..8bcb7a6992fb 100644
--- a/python/mxnet/onnx/mx2onnx/_export_onnx.py
+++ b/python/mxnet/onnx/mx2onnx/_export_onnx.py
@@ -50,6 +50,7 @@
 import logging
 import json
 
+import numpy as np
 from mxnet import ndarray as nd
 
 
@@ -290,7 +291,7 @@ def create_onnx_graph_proto(self, sym, params, in_shapes, in_types, verbose=Fals
         class NodeOutput:
             def __init__(self, name, dtype):
                 self.name = name
-                self.dtype = dtype
+                self.dtype = np.dtype(dtype)
 
         initializer = []
         all_processed_nodes = []