diff --git a/.github/workflows/azureml-cpu-nightly.yml b/.github/workflows/azureml-cpu-nightly.yml
index 009c076ee..616707f7f 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/azureml-cpu-nightly.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/azureml-cpu-nightly.yml
@@ -69,7 +69,7 @@ jobs:
     strategy:
       max-parallel: 50 # Usage limits: https://docs.github.com/en/actions/learn-github-actions/usage-limits-billing-and-administration
       matrix:
-        python-version: ["3.9", "3.10", "3.11"]
+        python-version: ["3.8", "3.9", "3.10", "3.11"]
         test-group:  ${{ fromJSON(needs.get-test-groups.outputs.test_groups) }}
     steps:
       - name: Check out repository code
diff --git a/.github/workflows/azureml-gpu-nightly.yml b/.github/workflows/azureml-gpu-nightly.yml
index b979b7578..23cffda0a 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/azureml-gpu-nightly.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/azureml-gpu-nightly.yml
@@ -69,7 +69,7 @@ jobs:
     strategy:
       max-parallel: 50 # Usage limits: https://docs.github.com/en/actions/learn-github-actions/usage-limits-billing-and-administration
       matrix:
-        python-version: ["3.9", "3.10", "3.11"]
+        python-version: ["3.8", "3.9", "3.10", "3.11"]
         test-group:  ${{ fromJSON(needs.get-test-groups.outputs.test_groups) }}
     steps:
       - name: Check out repository code
diff --git a/.github/workflows/azureml-spark-nightly.yml b/.github/workflows/azureml-spark-nightly.yml
index d7ece9f5e..da508ebe4 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/azureml-spark-nightly.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/azureml-spark-nightly.yml
@@ -68,7 +68,7 @@ jobs:
     strategy:
       max-parallel: 50 # Usage limits: https://docs.github.com/en/actions/learn-github-actions/usage-limits-billing-and-administration
       matrix:
-        python-version: ["3.9", "3.10", "3.11"]
+        python-version: ["3.8", "3.9", "3.10", "3.11"]
         test-group:  ${{ fromJSON(needs.get-test-groups.outputs.test_groups) }}
     steps:
       - name: Check out repository code
diff --git a/.github/workflows/azureml-unit-tests.yml b/.github/workflows/azureml-unit-tests.yml
index b20178150..0f7ed2a18 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/azureml-unit-tests.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/azureml-unit-tests.yml
@@ -58,7 +58,7 @@ jobs:
     strategy:
       max-parallel: 50 # Usage limits: https://docs.github.com/en/actions/learn-github-actions/usage-limits-billing-and-administration
       matrix:
-        python-version: ["3.9", "3.10", "3.11"]
+        python-version: ["3.8", "3.9", "3.10", "3.11"]
         test-group:  ${{ fromJSON(needs.get-test-groups.outputs.test_groups) }}
     steps:
       - name: Check out repository code
diff --git a/.github/workflows/sarplus.yml b/.github/workflows/sarplus.yml
index 5d06f6385..90d03fef6 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/sarplus.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/sarplus.yml
@@ -39,7 +39,7 @@ jobs:
     runs-on: ubuntu-22.04
     strategy:
       matrix:
-        python-version: ["3.9", "3.10", "3.11"]
+        python-version: ["3.8", "3.9", "3.10", "3.11"]
     steps:
       - uses: actions/checkout@v4
 
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index d3a342a92..efff734e5 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -27,9 +27,8 @@
     version += ".post" + str(int(time.time()))
 
 install_requires = [
-    "category-encoders>=2.6.0,<3",  # requires packaging
+    "category-encoders>=2.6.0,<2.6.4",  # requires packaging
     "cornac>=1.15.2,<3",  # requires packaging, tqdm
-    "Cython<3.0",  # FIXME: Remove this when statsmodels resolves the compilation issue with Cython 3.0.  See https://github.com/statsmodels/statsmodels/issues/8868
     "hyperopt>=0.2.7,<1",
     "lightgbm>=4.0.0,<5",
     "locust>=2.12.2,<3",  # requires jinja2
@@ -38,6 +37,7 @@
     "notebook>=6.5.5,<8",  # requires ipykernel, jinja2, jupyter, nbconvert, nbformat, packaging, requests
     "numba>=0.57.0,<1",
     "pandas>2.0.0,<3.0.0",  # requires numpy
+    "pandera[strategies]>=0.6.5,<0.18;python_version<='3.8'",  # For generating fake datasets
     "pandera[strategies]>=0.15.0;python_version>='3.9'",
     "retrying>=1.3.4,<2",
     "scikit-learn>=1.2.0,<2",  # requires scipy, and introduce breaking change affects feature_extraction.text.TfidfVectorizer.min_df
@@ -107,6 +107,7 @@
         "Topic :: Scientific/Engineering :: Artificial Intelligence",
         "Topic :: Software Development :: Libraries :: Python Modules",
         "License :: OSI Approved :: MIT License",
+        "Programming Language :: Python :: 3.8",
         "Programming Language :: Python :: 3.9",
         "Programming Language :: Python :: 3.10",
         "Programming Language :: Python :: 3.11",