diff --git a/nipap-cli/nipap b/nipap-cli/nipap
index 37d0683a4..79ea21320 100755
--- a/nipap-cli/nipap
+++ b/nipap-cli/nipap
@@ -85,7 +85,7 @@ if __name__ == '__main__':
     }
     # read configuration
     cfg = configparser.ConfigParser(cfg_defaults, allow_no_value=True)
-    cfg.read(userrcfile)
+    cfg.read(['/etc/nipaprc', userrcfile])
     nipap_cli.nipap_cli.cfg = cfg
 
     if cfg.has_section("tracing"):